The NFL is coming to Munich.
The league announced Wednesday that Munich has been selected to host the first-ever regular-season game in Germany during the 2022 season. The NFL also announced that Frankfurt will host future games in Germany.
"We are very pleased to welcome Munich and Frankfurt to the NFL family and are excited to reward our fans in Germany for their passion by bringing them the spectacle of regular-season NFL football," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement. "We look forward to staging our first game in Germany at FC Bayern Munich's fantastic stadium later this year and to exploring areas of broader collaboration with the Bundesliga."
The game in Munich is one of five international NFL games scheduled for 2022, along with one in Mexico and three in the United Kingdom -- two will be played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as well as a Jacksonville Jaguars home game at Wembley Stadium. Home teams for the international slate will be announced in the coming weeks, though dates and matchups won't be released until the 2022 NFL schedule announcement later this year. With the advent of a 17-game regular season, each team is required to stage at least one international game every eight years.
Germany will host four International Series games over the next four seasons, with the 2022 matchup and an additional one at FC Bayern Munich Stadium, the home of the Bundesliga champions. The two other games will be played at Frankfurt Stadium.
"We are very pleased to welcome the NFL International Series to Munich," Lord Mayor of Munich Dieter Reiter said. "It is a great honor for the state capital Munich to be the first German city to stage a regular-season NFL game. Many Munich residents are big football fans and they will be thrilled that this spectacular sporting event is coming to their city."
The selection process commenced last year, with Munich, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf chosen as hosting finalists among nine cities in Germany. The league's joint venture with Munich and Frankfurt includes a commitment to deliver fan engagements activities, community participation programs and other NFL initiatives. NFL Head of Europe and UK Brett Gosper said Düsseldorf could serve as a potential site in the future.
"We are looking forward to partnerships with Munich and Frankfurt that will extend beyond the games and help us to deliver accelerated growth in Germany," Gosper said. "The strong interest we received underlined what a fantastic opportunity regular-season games offer for a host, ranging from significant economic benefits and global exposure to the chance to become a hub for the growth of the NFL's fan engagement, community and grassroots activities."
In December, four NFL teams -- the Carolina Panthers, Kansas City Chiefs, New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers -- were granted access to Germany for marketing, fan engagement and commercialization as part of the NFL’s International Home Marketing Areas initiative.
The country has emerged as a major market for the game, with an estimated 19 million NFL fans residing in Germany. Weekly viewership on partners ProSieben and DAZN has grown by more than 20 percent annually since 2017, while Super Bowl LV marked the third consecutive season of record German Super Bowl viewership. Fantasy football participation and sales at the NFL Shop and of the Madden video game have also steadily increased.
A recent survey by AFG Videoforschung found that American football is the second-most popular television sport in Germany, with one in three people having watched in the past year.
Fans looking to attend or receive further information about the 2022 game in Munich can visit www.nfl.com/munich.
