In a bid to expand its global reach, America's (National Football League) NFL is making an ambitious move to organize a pre-season game in China in 2018, with Germany and Brazil also figuring in the expansion plan.

The decision to globally expand the game was made at this week's co-owners meeting, where 32 owners of NFL team brainstormed on ways to expand the game.

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"International is a big push right now," New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch said on Monday at the NFL team owners meeting.   

According to reports, the general view among team owners is that holding pre-season games in China is the most ambitious undertaking among all the proposed international destinations. China, with world's largest population, is a highly lucrative market for NFL owners.  

However, NFL owners are mindful that China's different time zone and its enormous physical distance from America will represent huge logistical challenge.  

"It's very exciting, very exotic to think about. But if we do get to a point where the NFL plays a game in China, the logistics are going to be interesting," Tisch said. "A lot to figure out in terms of getting there, playing there, coming back from there to the States, how do you maintain the parity with the other 30 teams who don't have to play there. So, a lot to be worked out still before that could happen."  

The NFL was supposed to debut in China in 2007 - a year prior to Beijing Olympics. A pre-season game between New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks was slated to take place in Beijing, but the game was postponed for two years and eventually called off.

At the moment, the NFL's only association with Asia is through Japan, where it staged regular pre-season games between 1990 and 2005.  

Apart from Japan, Canada, Mexico and England are the only countries outside U.S. to have hosted regular pre-season games. However, England has attracted more games over the years, with London literally becoming the NFL's second home outside the U.S.     

TagsNFL, NFL Games in China, national football league