The UK will be home to its own NFL team by 2022, a league spokesman has suggested.
Plans to house one of the league's 32 teams in the UK have been mooted for some time following the popularity of the international series, which has seen regular-season games hosted at Wembley in London since 2007.
The number of regular-season games held annually in the UK is due to grow in the coming seasons, with at least five planned in 2018, and spokesman Mark Waller insisted that the league was "on track" to bring a permanent franchise to the UK within six years.
"The fan base is big enough and passionate enough that it can support a franchise," Waller told the BBC.
"I felt in 2007 it was always a 15-year journey. I think we're on track to deliver that. I fundamentally believe we will deliver that."
The three games hosted at Wembley in 2015 had an average attendance of almost 84,000.
Neil Wilkes
