NFL skips Mexico for 2025 international games

Hasta luego, Mexico.

That seems to beryllium the sentiment from the National Football League (NFL), which has fundamentally said “catch you later” to Mexico by leaving the state disconnected its planetary docket for a 3rd consecutive year.

This year’s snub hurts adjacent more, as determination were expectations precocious past year that Mexico City would beryllium hosting a matchup during the 2025 regular season, which begins Sept. 4.

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At a crippled successful Germany past season, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told the NFL Network that the league’s owners had authorized up to 8 games per play extracurricular of the United States.

As helium ticked disconnected locales being focused connected for 2025, helium said, “We expect to instrumentality to Mexico City,” which has not hosted a crippled since the San Francisco 49ers played the Arizona Cardinals successful 2022.

Mexican fans cheered. Optimism blossomed. “The NFL volition instrumentality to Mexico successful 2025,” beamed a header successful the quality root Infobae.

Flash guardant to this week’s header successful the quality portal SICOM Noticias: “Mexico is out!”

On Tuesday, the league unveiled the 2025 docket for its 32 teams, including a slate of 7 planetary games: 1 each successful São Paulo, Brazil; Dublin, Ireland; Berin, Germany; Madrid, Spain; and 3 successful London, England (two astatine Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and 1 astatine Wembley Stadium).

The announcement came arsenic a disappointment to Mexico’s NFL’s fans, a radical estimated to beryllium 40 cardinal beardown — the largest NFL instrumentality basal of immoderate state extracurricular of the United States.

The superior crushed for not returning to Mexico is the ongoing renovation of Estadio Azteca — now known arsenic Estadio Banorte — which has hosted each 5 of Mexico’s erstwhile regular-season NFL games.

The stadium is undergoing extended upgrades successful mentation for the 2026 World Cup and is not expected to reopen until March 28, 2026.

Major renovations astatine Estadio Azteca mean nary NFL games successful Mexico for 2025. (Rogelio Morales/Cuartoscuro)

Sports Business Journal reported earlier this twelvemonth that “Mexico City authorities are balking astatine re-joining the [NFL] premix successful 2025. Essentially, they are deathly acrophobic of taking immoderate risks with the tract and venue earlier the World Cup, sources said. Everybody astatine the NFL understands the value of the World Cup successful Mexico, but they’re besides a spot annoyed by what they see hazard aversion to a fault.”

At a World Cup co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, Mexico City’s iconic stadium volition big the opening ceremonial and opening crippled connected June 11, 2026, 2 further group-stage games and two games successful the knockout rounds.

Peter O’Reilly, NFL enforcement vice president of concern and events, told SICOM Noticias: “We proceed to speech with our partners successful Mexico, particularly with a wide knowing of erstwhile they cognize the close clip is erstwhile the Estadio Azteca is renovated. For now, the cardinal connection is ‘when,’ due to the fact that we privation to bash it close and person a large crippled successful Mexico.”

O’Reilly has besides said the league is “committed” to returning to Mexico successful 2026 aft the renovations are complete.

The past NFL crippled successful Mexico took spot connected Nov. 21, 2022, erstwhile the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Arizona Cardinals 38-10 successful a “Monday Night Football” matchup astatine Estadio Azteca that drew 78,427 fans, an acquisition 49ers caput manager Kyle Shanahan said “was 1 of the coolest experiences I’ve ever been a portion of. We were told it mightiness beryllium similar that but it was adjacent amended than we expected.”

Mexico besides hosted the first-ever NFL regular-season crippled extracurricular of the U.S. — a 2005 contention featuring the aforesaid 2 teams, with the Cardinals beating the 49ers 31-14. The crippled drew 103,467 fans to a pre-downsized Azteca, mounting an NFL regular-season record.

Azteca besides hosted 1 of the 40 NFL preseason accumulation games the NFL played extracurricular the United States from 1986 to 2005. That game, successful 1994, drew 112,376 radical to ticker the Houston Oilers decision the Dallas Cowboys 6-0.

The NFL’s lineup of 2025 planetary games tin beryllium viewed astatine NFL.com.

With reports from El Economista, Diario AS, SportsMedia MX and ICOM Noticias