Britain should be integrated into American sports leagues like the NFL, Tories say

The Conservative say Britain should set up an NFL franchise which would play American teams

Julian Edelman demonstrates a prime example of the shoulder pads and bum protection used in the NFL (Getty Images)

Britain needs a professional American football team and should be integrated into the US's NFL competition, the Conservatives have said.

The Tory manifesto, released today, contains a commitment to work towards setting up an NFL franchise in Britain and integrating the UK into the American sports league structure.

“We will support new sports in the UK, in particular through greater links with the US National Football League, the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball, with the ultimate ambition of new franchises being based here,” the manifesto reads.

The franchise arrangement could be modelled along similar lines to that of the NHL (National Hockey League) where 23 teams from the United States compete alongside seven from Canada in the same league.

Occasional NFL matches between American teams are already played a few times a year in London and have been since 2007.

The sport is currently administered by the British American Football Association and teams play in the BAFA National Leagues.

The Conservatives also proposed setting up franchises for America’s NBA basketball league and MLB baseball competition in Britain.

Labour leader Ed Miliband is a big fan of baseball and has spoken on a number of occasions about his passion for the Boston Red Sox, a team based in the north east US.

“I lived in Boston when I was seven for a year, then more when I was twelve, I went there for a term of junior high school when my dad was teaching there. And that made me a fanatic,” he said in an interview with the blog Labour Uncut in 2010.