Almost all the continents play American football like North and South America, Europe, Asia and also Pacific countries. The official international governing body of America football is The International Federation of American Football. It has 45 members' organizations. It started in the year 1999 and has hosted the American football world cup along with Japan in 1999 and 2003.

American football has gained popularity in Mexico as the matches are broadcasted live here. In fact American football is so much popular there that NFL opened up an office there in the year 1997. This was done to supervise fan marketing, fan development, special events and public relations. There is also a website in Spanish language especially for the Mexican fans.

American football has also made its presence felt in Europe. There was a European league known as the World League of Football which was supported by the National Football League. This led to emergence of NFL Europe. The league has six teams which serve as developmental league for the NFL teams in USA. Out of the 6 teams in NFL, Europe, 5 are Germany based and the remaining one is based in Netherlands.  NFL Europe is used for developing new players as well as for testing new rules and regulations for the game.

American football has always been hugely popular in Canada in spite of the fact that Canada has its own football team. NFL has connected well with the Canadian football fans. Super Bowl XL is held in Detroit (which is near to Windsor in Canada) and NFL organizes special train for Canadian football fans so that they can come to Windsor and watch the match live. A website for the Canadian football fans is also maintained by NFL. It has all the latest news and it also gives information about the Canadian born players.