The National Football League (NFL) has announced that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers will take on the Seattle Seahawks on November 13 at Allianz Arena in the first regular season game to be held in Germany.
The NFL today (Wednesday) confirmed the opponents and dates for its five 2022 international regular-season games – three in the UK, one in Germany and one in Mexico.
The news follows February’s initial announcement that Munich’s Allianz Arena would stage Germany’s first-ever regular-season NFL game later this year, with Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park also selected to host games in the coming years.
Each stadium will host two games over the next four years. The announcement of Munich and Frankfurt as host cities meant that Düsseldorf missed out on staging games. The NFL confirmed in October that the three cities were in discussions to host games after being invited to proceed to the ‘candidate phase’ of the selection process.
Allianz Arena serves as the home of Bayern Munich, while Deutsche Bank Park is home to fellow Bundesliga football club Eintracht Frankfurt. After Allianz Arena hosts this year’s game, the two venues will alternate hosting rights until 2025.
Andreas Jung, marketing director at Bayern Munich, said today: “We are delighted to be able to host this exciting game between the Buccaneers and the Seahawks in the Allianz Arena. This is the next step in our long-term partnership with the NFL and we look forward to welcoming American football fans to our state-of-the-art arena.”
Last year, as part of the League’s expansion of the regular season to 17 games, it was determined that, beginning with the 2022 season, up to four of the teams from the conference whose teams were eligible for a ninth regular-season home game would instead be designated to play a neutral-site international game each year.
This year’s international series will kick off with games on back-to-back weekends at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. The New Orleans Saints and Minnesota Vikings will each play in the UK for the third time. Both teams have won on two previous occasions in the UK and will make their debut at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on October 2.
The following Sunday, October 9, the Green Bay Packers will face the New York Giants in their first international trip, becoming the 32nd NFL team to play in London since 2007. The Giants will play in the UK for the third time, having won both the inaugural London game at Wembley Stadium in 2007 and the first game played at Twickenham Stadium in 2016.
London action then shifts to Wembley on October 30, when the Jacksonville Jaguars, which played at Tottenham last season, return to Wembley for the first time since 2019, having played there for seven straight seasons. They will face the Denver Broncos, who are making their first trip to the UK since they last played at Wembley in 2010.
The NFL will conclude its international proceedings for 2022 by returning to Mexico City on November 21 with Monday Night Football. Estadio Azteca will host a matchup between NFC West rivals San Francisco 49ers and Arizona Cardinals in a rematch of the NFL’s first regular-season game played outside the United States. In 2005, the teams played at Estadio Azteca with 103,467 fans in attendance, the eighth largest crowd in NFL history.
The NFL is due to announce its full 2022 schedule on May 12.
Image: Bayern Munich
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