The NFL as part of its 2026 regular-season kickoff next week will hold its first-ever game in Australia. The San Francisco 49ers will face the Los Angeles Rams at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground.The contest will represent the first of nine international games for the NFL this season, with the other eight taking place within the first 11 weeks of the season. As the appetite for America’s most popular sports league continues to grow globally, league officials continue to eye expansion. Owners last year approved a measure to expand the international slate to 10 games, and it’s no secret they would like each season to feature 16 international games. Such an expansion would require negotiations between the league and the NFL Players Association, however.In addition to holding their first Australian matchup, the NFL also will host a game in France (Week 7 in Paris between the Pittsburgh Steelers and New Orleans Saints) for the first time. There’s also a Week 3 matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Dallas Cowboys in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, three contests in London in Weeks 4, 5 and 6, a showdown in Madrid, Spain, between the Cincinnati Bengals and Atlanta Falcons in Week 9, a Week 10 meeting in Munich, Germany, between the New England Patriots and Detroit Lions, and a Week 11 game in Mexico City between the Minnesota Vikings and 49ers.Although there’s no current timeline for an expansion of the international series, NFL executive vice president of club business and international and league events Peter O’Reilly said league Wednesday that officials are constantly monitoring the success of each contest, as well as the demands in other global markets in hopes of settling on the best possible locations to expand the NFL’s reach.If the NFL goes international, what are the challenges?Jayna Bardahl“We take that process very, very seriously,” O’Reilly said on a conference call with reporters. “We’ve been pretty methodical in going from — obviously we played games in Mexico early on in this process, then primarily in the UK. … And this is what we do: We look at the fan data, the fan engagement in the market. We look at the strategic opportunity in the market. … We look at where clubs are active and want to be. That led to Germany, then Brazil, then Spain, Ireland, France, now Australia, and then you’ve got a core set there.”O’Reilly added, “We look at what could be next. What are parts of the world where there are opportunities, there is fandom, there is strategic opportunity? And that’s how we work with it internally and with the ownership committee to see where we go next. But pretty methodical.”O’Reilly said that while there are no immediate plans, the league has begun researching the possibility of holding a game in Japan in the near future. While the NFL has held preseason games in Japan in the past (the last time coming in 2005) the league has yet to hold a regular-season game there.