Commissioner Roger Goodell: NFL will never leave London

LONDON — The NFL will ‘‘never leave’’ London, commissioner Roger Goodell told a fan forum Saturday.

Goodell was asked how soon the league will increase its slate of international games to eight per season after playing its first game in Brazil last month. He said he wants to continue playing there and in other ‘‘markets that we’d like to be in’’ across the globe, including Ireland.

‘‘We want to get to those,’’ Goodell said via a livestream of the forum. ‘‘But we’ve gotta make sure of our foundation, which is this market. . . . Germany’s getting close to that, too. Germany’s doing an amazing job. We had two games there last year. . . .

‘‘We’ll never leave this market. This will always be a foundation.’’

Goodell said the NFL seriously is considering moving to an 18-game regular season with two preseason games and two byes for each team. Each team could end up playing one international game, he said, if the league can find 16 markets to hold a game apiece.

‘‘There’s probably more interest than we can handle,’’ he said in answering a fan question.

Goodell said playing in London is similar to playing in the U.S.

‘‘The fandom here is most like that,’’ he said. ‘‘They really understand the game.’’

Goodell is in London to watch the Bears play the Jaguars on Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. His first NFL experience overseas was the 1986 International Bowl exhibition game between the Bears and Cowboys.

Goodell said he wouldn't be surprised if the NFL played a Super Bowl overseas someday, but he admitted that would be a hard sell back home.