In 1996 I lived and went to school in London, England. One of the best times of my life and believe it or not, the Packers were part of it.

As is the case in the US, there are a few bars/clubs that show American football games..digital packages. The bar that we would go to was in Piccadilly Circus (and there is no way I could remember the name of it...to much Guinness). We would go there every other week or so to watch the Pack play. Games would start at 8 PM (for a noon start back home).

There were always plenty of ex-pats there to watch the game, but there were also a lot of Londoners who loved the game. Now, I believe that the first NFL game played in London was in 1983, but the first regular season game was in 2007. There has always been interest in England for American football. I think as long as there is beer at the game and gambling involved, those Englanders will love any sport.

Do I think that American football will ever really catch on overseas. Yea, I think it will. There is currently the EFL (European Football League). The World League of American Football lasted from 1991 to 2007. It produced a few NFL stars and I think that was the main point of it, a minor league of football. Eventually, as the world's global economy becomes smaller and smaller, sports will begin to be shared more and more. Look at soccer in the US...it's fairly new in the current professional state it is in. Everything catches on eventually as long as someone can make money off of it.

So, as most of us know, there are Packer fans everywhere...including non-US citizens. When I moved to Oregon, I was amazed at the amount of Packer fans here. Most of them say that they are fans because their dad was a fan. Makes sense, think about the days when many people, who didn't have a football team in their home market, were either Packer or Cowboy...those were the powerhouses. Yes, unfortanetly there are just as many Cowboy fans out here for exactly the same reason. That's poor raising of your kids! [url=Pro_News/aid=144.html]full article[/url].

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Great article. I always was curious about fans from overseas. I always had a feeling there were casual fans out there for American football. I even have a sneaking feeling that there are a lot of foreign fans who root for the pack or would root for them if they ever see them.

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To be honest the 1st year I tried to watch the packers here in the UK at the bars wasnt that great. There were only 2 places that I knew 'might' play games.
Cheers and sports cafe (cant remember if this is the right name of the bar - its near tiger tiger). (actually both are). But the cheers place would often not play games even thou they were supposed too; 'soccer' was always first no matter what and if there was nothing else on then maybe they would play a football game.
the sports cafe was pretty cool; they would play most nfl matches but on occasion - when some crap soccer shit played they wouldnt (eg it would take what over an hour to get to the place - and its not like you could just get back home to watch the game cuz you would miss it).

Now - I enjoy the games MUCH more from the comfort of my own home. My best experiences watching the game have been on this site during game day with the chat and the stream. The coming together of all of us to watch the game beats the above etc ...

Last year I also had the NFL gamepass; so that helped too. (would rewatch the games in better quality later and when less excited to analyze stuff).

oh btw I missed watching a fare amount of games with you guys toward the end of the season (gf) and got a new gf here also but perhaps I can squeeze in some time to watch em ;)

+1 to packers home for the best packers experience I have had since being away from home. (london based).

From 2005-2008 I lived in Tokyo and had to get up at 2 AM to watch noon Packer games. Couldn't really go to a bar to watch at that hour although they usually replayed a few NFL games later in the week. There are fans there but not a lot. They have their own American football league too, maybe our elite HS level?

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Wow...never thought about Japan having a league. Cool...even if it is 'junior highish'. So, Sumo guys get into football?

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NFL is starting to get really popular in Australia. Now that it is on Free TV and you don't need cable to watch it. Lots of people are starting to get into it. It's a lot easier to be a football fan down here then it was even only five years ago.

I still don't like getting up at 3am to watch the Packers play though 🙂 At least this year with gamepass I can get up at a more respectable hour and watch it on demand on gamepass without having the outcome spoiled.

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It always amazes me how many fans the Green 'n Gold has overseas. I've always wondered why that is. Cool unis? Awesome tradition? Great town for sports? I guess a bit of all of the above.

Not that I'm complaining. 🙂

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good fans everywhere !!

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here in germany it's mostly about the great tradition, a team not owned by a single guy, but the community and the play of the heroes in the past. as i stated in another thread, green bay has the biggest fan base of all teams in germany, for whatever reason.

anyway, thanks god that the lord told me the right way in bleeding green and gold 😉

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packers fan from italy...


there are cheseheads but other teams are well represented too....nfl is getting more popular but still a sport for not so many...maybe the europe country where nfl is less known...

but i bleed green and gold

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