The National Football League (NFL) announced Friday that it has made a multiyear commitment to play a minimum of three regular-season football games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, over the the next five years.
The commitment begins with the 2026 season and will feature the first-ever game to be played in Rio at Maracanã Stadium. The stadium, which has a seating capacity of 78,838, is mainly used for football matches between the major football clubs in Rio de Janeiro, including Fluminense, Flamengo, Botafogo, and Vasco da Gama.
“Building on the success of the games in São Paulo, we could not be more excited to play in one of the world’s most iconic cities — Rio de Janeiro,” said NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. “We look forward to working closely with our city and state partners in Rio along with the historic Maracanã Stadium to deepen our ties to the tens of millions of fans in Brazil and across South America.”
The NFL played its first-ever game in Brazil in 2024, which featured the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo. The Eagles defeated the Packers in that contest, 34-29.
“The National Football League’s multiyear partnership with Rio, a vibrant city where people want to be, is a perfect match,” said Mayor of Rio de Janeiro Eduardo Paes. “It will be a historic event, as NFL games will be included on our city’s official calendar. I’m looking forward to seeing an American football game at Maracanã, the most iconic temple of world football.”
The second Brazil game was played earlier this month when the Los Angeles Chargers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 27-21, at Corinthians Arena.
“We are delighted to announce that Maracanã Stadium will host a regular-season NFL game next year in Rio de Janeiro,” said Governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro Cláudio Castro. “Brazil is now the second-largest consumer of American football outside the United States, and thousands of tourists and sports fans have dreamed of experiencing this event at the world’s most famous stadium. Bringing the NFL to Rio is a milestone that will boost tourism, create jobs, stimulate the economy, and show the strength of our state as an international sports destination.”
The NFL previously announced that a regular-season game will be played for the first-time ever at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in Melbourne, Australia, in 2026.
if the premier league teams did this to their fans it would be the end of the world. hopefully jerral jones and bob kraft can make more money off the fans with this by taking away their fans’ home games #kudos
Once again I’m asking that if we’re playing 17 games that everyone’s extra opponent is an international game.
why? you are doing the owners dirty work for them with this argument. its like the “access” to the playoff argument…..it just puts more money in the SEC and Big 18s pocket while destroying the regular season. does bama-uga and penn st-oregon even matter tomorrow? did cincy not make a 4 team playoff? it just gives them another chance to put a weak OSU/blue blood team in the playoff for a second chance to cash in. A 9-3 Mizzou is never winning anything Eli
Greedy:
Does any NFL game matter to you? 9-8 and 10-7 NFL teams make the playoffs all the time.
@Richard Not to argue with you that shipping our games out of the US is a bad thing, and there are too many playoff teams, which lessens the regular season, but there are a lot of college teams that make it to bowl games with 6-6 and 6-7 records every year. I don’t see much difference in hanging a banner that says we were 9-8 and made the playoffs for an NFL team and a college team putting one up that says we went 6-8 and played in the Kohler Toilet Bowl.
JM, Greedy is arguing is that the expanded CFB playoff made UGa-Bama and UO-PSU not matter, and I’m saying that by that logic, he should think that no regular season NFL game matters (in which case, why does it matter if more games are played overseas, since he thinks they don’t matter anyway?)
yes, no nfl games matter its boring and i dont watch it. every game comes down to an exciting field goal attempt with a phantom penalty
Eventually, only a few games a season will be played in America. NFL = traveling circus.
I agree. It’s a joke.
What an ignorant statement.
Fans of NFL teams are still getting (and will continue to get) the same or more home games as they did when the NFL had only 16 regular season games.
I don’t forsee NFL home fans ever getting fewer than 8 home games a year.
vikings are playing back 2 back games in epcot land. they jumped the shark nfl been a joke since the refs stopped wearing white pants