10 years down the line, it is anticipated that London will house an NFL franchise and, according to reports in the Telegraph, it is the future, as yet unbuilt, home of Tottenham Hotspur that is being eyed up.
Planning permission for the stadium has already been granted and it is expected to be open for the beginning of the 2018-19 season. NFL sources are said to be keen on linking up with Spurs, though the club have said there has been no contact.
The whipping boys of the NFL, the Jacksonville Jaguars, are the hot favourites to be uprooted and moved across the Atlantic. That they are also owned by Fulham chairman Shahid Khan is another reason to suspect they could be heading to the English capital.
This will likely cause problems, given that Roy Hodgson complained about the state of the Wembley pitch after the two NFL games played there this season.
As far as Ireland is concerned, Croke Park made a pitch to the NFL to bring a Pittsburgh Steelers game to the capital last year but the League opted for Wembley. Peter McKenna coolly insisted that a Croker NFL game is 'not on the horizon' but many speculated that last year's Croke Park Classic college game (which shunted the Kerry-Mayo replay off to Limerick) was regarded as an opportunity to showcase Dublin as a viable venue for a future NFL game.
