which beer is the best in the world?

I already knew that, what gave you an idea that I thought we just pulled the name Border Leicester outta our ass and you glommed the name from us?

neither can I relate to a team named after a " Leicester "

its only sheep and soccer, nothing important

The NFL's China experiment was supposed to happen in 2007, in advance of the Beijing Olympics. Billed as the China Bowl, the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks were scheduled to play a preseason game in Beijing on Aug. 9, 2007.

But fearing it wasn't ready to hold a game half a world away and knowing it might get only one chance to attract Chinese fans to a sport they didn't inherently know, the league punted. It was already about to hold its first regular-season game outside of North America, at London's Wembley Stadium between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins. Initially, the league rescheduled the preseason game in China for 2009.

Ultimately, it canceled the game altogether. "We were nervous in our ability to execute well," said Mark Waller, the NFL's executive vice president of international. "We took the view that the longer-term strategy of playing regular-season games had to go well in the first year. If we did a first game that didn't do well, we probably wouldn't get other teams to participate."

So London took precedence.

Not anymore.

This season, the NFL will play three more regular-season games in London, bringing the total to 17 games there since 2007. There also will be one regular-season game in Mexico City in November. And by 2018, the league expects to make its long-delayed debut in China with a regular-season game.
The Los Angeles Rams are expected to be one of the teams to play in China, and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in March that the league has "multiple teams that are interested," but not everybody is crazy about the idea. Executives from teams such as the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants, two of the NFL's glamour franchises, are on the record with their objections. With so much at stake each week, there are concerns that flying half a day or more each way could put a team at a competitive disadvantage -- for that game and beyond.

The NFL is undeterred. Waller said he will visit China to scout stadiums in Beijing and Shanghai later this month. The NFL's international committee will meet at the end of April and then share its findings with ownership in May. At another owners meeting in October, the league likely will try to finalize a plan for playing a game in China in 2018.

China has unveiled a strategy to become a "world football superpower" by 2050, with plans to get 50 million children and adults playing the game by 2020.

Other targets include having at least 20,000 football training centres and 70,000 pitches in place by 2020.

While China excels at the Olympics and Paralympics, it has only ever qualified for one football World Cup, in 2002.

President Xi Jinping is a football enthusiast and previously said he wants China to win the World Cup in 15 years.

The plan was published by the Chinese Football Association (in Chinese) on Monday.




It sets out short, medium and long-term targets, including ensuring there is one football pitch for every 10,000 people by 2030.

The men's football team should become one of the best in Asia, while the female football team should be ranked as a world-class team, by 2030, the plan said.

By 2050, the report added, China should be "a first-class football superpower" that "contributes to the international football world".

China's men's team currently sits 81st in the Fifa world rankings, out of 204 nations, below far smaller nations such as Haiti, Panama and Benin.

... the NFL is really pushing Gridirion, exhibition matches in London all free on the BBC but nobody's really interested.