UK to host another NFL Game

Originally Posted by BBC.co.uk

America's National Football League will return to the UK in 2008 after last October's successful debut at Wembley. New York beat Miami before a crowd of 81,176 in the first regular-season game ever held outside the Americas.

London is in the running to host its second game but Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and Murrayfield in Edinburgh are also believed to be candidates. The venue and teams involved are expected to be confirmed in the week before the Super Bowl, on 3 February.

"The game in London was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the entire 2007 season," said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

"The fan interest was tremendous. The passion they demonstrated for our sport that day continued throughout the season, as television viewership in the UK has grown by 40% since the game."

NFL UK managing director Alistair Kirkwood said: "Clearly, the fans - with their passion and enthusiasm - have convinced the NFL that the UK should be rewarded with another game in 2008.

Wembley came under fire for the standard of its field after a rain-hit game, in which players struggled with their footing.

Roger Lewis, chief executive of the Wales Rugby Union, which owns the Millennium Stadium, hopes Cardiff's retractable roof will count in its favour. "We would welcome them coming to the Millennium Stadium. We think we are the perfect fit for them," he told the Financial Times, adding that talks with the NFL were continuing. "We have a retractable roof, which permits a rain-free fixture, and we have one of the finest pitches in world rugby."

Cardiff has not hosted professional American football before.

But Murrayfield was home to the Scottish Claymores of NFL Europe between 1995 and 2004 and the World Bowl championship game in 1996.