Is There Room for the NFL in Europe?

Spring is coming, but this year there's no football in Europe. The NFL decided to end definitely with the European league, because it wants to change its international marketing strategy. That just drives me mad. Marketing?!

The thing is NFL Europa was not the most successful project ever. Nevertheless, it brought the NFL closer to Europe. The Super Bowl started to be a big thing even in smaller countries where there weren't any NFL Europa franchises. People started to watch football.

The NFL had other goals though. They thought that they would arrive in Europe and stun the Old Continent. Stadiums packed with passionate crowds, thousands watching the games on TV... Not really.

Nowadays, it's hard for even a soccer team to sell out all the seats in a stadium, and that's soccer.

The problem is the NFL brought something that Europeans don't like. That's change. European soccer teams are clubs, not franchises. Manchester United never was London United, nor Ajax Amsterdam was Ajax Rotterdam. Tradition is everything in Europe.

As soon as the NFL moved the Dragons from Barcelona and left other cities in Northern Europe, people could figure out that this would not work out.

The NFL is now doing what should've been done some years ago, back in 1991.

Matches in Europe, or Mexico, or whatever. The natives go to the game and enjoy the sport and the experience. The Giants v Dolphins match at Wimbledon was actually a great experience.

During this phase the NFL would start exporting merchandise to Europe. Madden NFL should be sold in European stores and jerseys and footballs, alongside with cleats and helmets and pads, too.

Then you implement a development league in major cities. Cities that show great interest for the sport, receive a team, filled with players who come from the NFL, mostly Rookies and other players that a team might want to send on a training course.

A two-week championship, nothing too fancy like NFL Europa. A small event, like Spring training.

And this should be the basis for everything else. From then on the NFL should support clubs and regional leagues and national federations.

The NFL's biggest mistake was to implement a league right away. In Europe, things start slowly; you can not implement a league in one day, and expect it to be a huge event in the other.

Europeans cherish teams that started from scratch, that had to work their way through the leagues. That's a lesson that the bosses of the NFL need to know.

Come to think of it, I would say that NFL has accomplished its mission.At the moment there is an array of football teams all over Europe, so I would say, that there's not much more to do to promote football.

And the NFL must realise that Europe has already its sports. Soccer, Basketball, Tennis, Ice Hockey, Handball and football's biggest rival, Rugby, share the sports European sports scene. And you start thinking... Is there any room for football in Europe?