The National Football League has confirmed a first regular season fixture in Ireland.
The Pittsburgh Steelers will be the host team at Dublin Croke Park.
Dublin will be one of two new cities to host regular season games next season with a fixture in Madrid previously announced.
“The Steelers are excited and honoured to play in the NFL’s first ever regular season game in Ireland,” said Dan Rooney Jr, the team’s director of business development and strategy at a press conference in New Orleans.
“The Rooney family has deep ties to the island, having immigrated from there in the 1800s, eventually settling in Pittsburgh, PA, where my great grandfather would go on to found our franchise in 1933.
“We’re excited to represent our hometown of Pittsburgh internationally and play in front of a growing number of Steelers fans abroad.
“Today’s announcement builds off our deep connections to the island and charts a path forward to what we feel is a very exciting future for the Steelers in Ireland.”
The NFL launched the International Series in 2007 when the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium.
London remained the sole location until 2016 but since then there has been consistent expansion with Mexico and Germany staging nine games between them despite a two-year interruption due to Covid-19.
The current campaign began with the Philadelphia Eagles overcoming the Green Bay Packers in Brazil in what was the first of five international games this season and first games in Berlin and Spain have already been confirmed for 2025.
To this point, however, Dublin’s focus had been on the college game.
The Aviva Stadium has hosted the likes of Notre Dame, Northwestern and Florida State in recent seasons with two more games already scheduled for 2025 and ’27.
In 1997, the Steelers faced the Chicago Bears in the pre-season ‘American Bowl’ in Croke Park and, in recent seasons, the six-time Super Bowl winners have strengthened their links to Ireland when staging watch parties in Dublin as well as youth camps in Belfast and Cork.
