The National Football League has announced that American football will return to Wembley Stadium in 2008.

“The game in London was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the entire 2007 season,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.  “The fan interest was tremendous.   The passion they demonstrated for our sport that day continued throughout the season, as television viewership in the UK has grown by 40 percent since the game.

“We had an overwhelmingly positive response to the event from all involved – the teams, our sponsors and business partners and of course the fans themselves.   We look forward to another spectacular event in 2008.”

That said, the game itself wasn’t very compelling, given that the already-slick soccer pitch was made even slicker by rains upon the non-domed stadium.

Details as to the 2008 game are expected to be announced in connection with Super Bowl XLII.  The league also is expected to continue to explore the possibility of adding a seventeenth regular-season game, which would allow every team to play one game per year in other countries (and/or, as we’ve suggested, neutral sites like huge college stadiums) while still playing eight home games each per season.

The identities of the teams to travel to England for 2008 currently are unknown.  The Giants and Dolphins made the trip in 2007.  Eastern teams with low attendance for home games would be prime candidates for the shifting of a game to London.