LONDON — The NFL plans to launch girls’s and males’s skilled flag soccer leagues “within the subsequent couple of years,” Commissioner Roger Goodell stated Thursday.

The timeline outlined by Goodell at a sports activities convention in London would see the leagues created forward of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which is able to function flag soccer for the primary time.

“We’re dedicated to making a girls’s skilled league, and a males’s skilled flag league. We’ve had a substantial amount of curiosity in that and I anticipate that we’ll be capable to try this, launch that, within the subsequent couple of years,” Goodell stated on the Leaders in Sport convention at Twickenham Stadium.

The league has prioritized flag soccer as a approach to appeal to younger followers, each female and male.

“The demand is there. We’re seeing faculties within the states and universities internationally additionally that need to make it part of their program,” Goodell stated.

“In case you set that construction up the place there’s youth leagues, going into highschool, into faculty after which skilled, I feel you’ll be able to develop a system of scale. That’s an vital infrastructure that we have to create.”

Mexico Metropolis has been off the NFL’s rotation of hosts for worldwide video games whereas Azteca Stadium was beneath renovations forward of the 2026 World Cup. It is again within the image now, although.

“We’ll be again in Mexico Metropolis subsequent yr, which we’re thrilled about,” Goodell stated.

The league is enjoying a record-high seven video games internationally this season — six of them in Europe. Brazil hosted one recreation.

Goodell reiterated the league’s plan to extend the variety of video games overseas to 16, and once more said that Asia would be the subsequent area.

Australia has already been introduced for a recreation subsequent season.

“In case you’re going to be world, you must do it past Europe, past the Americas,” he stated. “That you must attain into different areas and territories, and subsequent yr we’re going to Australia. Now we have plans to go to Asia shortly thereafter.”

League officers declined to touch upon the place in Asia they’re contemplating.

Goodell stated soccer generally is a unifying power.

“We examine totally different points and we see the various things that go on in politics and in any other case … and sadly adverse issues like conflict,” he stated. “Once more, I feel soccer — and sports activities usually — I do assume carry communities collectively. That’s a constructive factor that we’d like a little bit extra of.”

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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl