NFL officially cancels International Series for 2020 season

When will the Atlanta Falcons be scheduled to play in London next?

It's official. The Atlanta Falcons will not be playing a defacto home game in London this season.

That's because a leaked report from the weekend about the NFL cancelling the International Series has become true. The league officially announced the cancellation of all games outside the United States during the 2020 season on Monday. 

The Falcons organization said it will have more information about the location change in a few days, but that the organization was planning for an additional home game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Like last season, the NFL schedule was supposed to include four London games this fall. All of the teams that were going to participate had not been disclosed yet, but the league revealed late last year that the Falcons would be one of three teams to sacrifice a home game to play in London. The Falcons and Miami Dolphins were supposed to play at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium while the Jacksonville Jaguars were going to have two home games at Wembley Stadium.

The 2020 schedule was also expected to include the Arizona Cardinals hosting a home game in Mexico City. All five of those contests will now happen in the United States.

NFL Report Albert Breer reported that the biggest reason for the cancellation was due to the "across-the-board protocols" the NFL is going to have to instill in all of its stadiums this fall in order for the season to occur.

The NFL's decision to cancel its five International Series games for 2020 came in conjunction with Televisa in Mexico, and London mayor Sadiq Khan and officials from Tottenham and Wembley in the UK.

Big reason: NFL will need across-the-board protocols for its stadiums in 2020.

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 4, 2020

With this change, this season will be the first time in 14 years that there will not be any NFL games played in London. The last time there were no regular season games in Mexico City was 2015.

The entire NFL schedule is expected to be released on May 9.