The National Football League (NFL), America and the world's premier professional football league, is reportedly planning to open its 2018 season with a game in China. The proposed match is said to be between California clubs Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers at still an unannounced venue.

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NBC Sports Pro Football Talk' Mike Florio reported that the NFL's "99th season may actually commence with a game on the other side of the Pacific Ocean" as the league aims to promote itself to the global market starting with perhaps the largest non-American audience in the world today, which is mainland China.

Florio cited SportsBusiness Journal reporter Daniel Kaplan as the source of the report, saying that the league 2018 edition "could begin in China on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, with the traditional Thursday night opener following later that same week".

The said scheme is planned in order to give the participating teams, in this case the Rams and Niners, ample time to rest and recover from their opening game schedule before they play their Week Two matches.

If either of the Rams or Niners win the Super Bowl in this upcoming season, then the China Tuesday or Wednesday schedule will stay the same with the NFL adjusting their traditional "Thursday night opener featuring the defending Super Bowl champion".

Another area of concern is the actual time schedule of the match. China is 12 hours ahead of the United States when it comes to time zones, which means a primetime match in the US is a morning game in China and vice-versa.

Meanwhile, Yahoo Sports said that the plan would be "a logistical nightmare in many ways", but doing it in the first week of the season will lessen the burden on competing teams.

Still, the NFL is reportedly keen on making this development happen as it targets to increase its profitability beyond the shores of mainland North America to other parts of the world as well.

TagsChina sports, American Football, NFL, Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, NFL news