The Pittsburgh Steelers hope to play a regular-season NFL game in Ireland, according to the franchise’s director of business development and strategy Dan Rooney.

The Steelers were awarded rights to expand their brand and activities for Ireland and Northern Ireland in May 2023 as part of the NFL’s Global Markets Program.

Rooney said hosting a regular-season NFL game in Ireland has been a “goal from the start” and said the Steelers are working with the NFL.

“It’s been a goal from the start, being able to pursue an opportunity to play a live game in front of the Irish fans,” Rooney told BBC Sport NI this week in Belfast.

“We are working with the NFL on that and we’re looking forward to seeing what’s coming.”

No regular-season NFL game has ever taken place in Ireland, but the Steelers did face – and beat – the Chicago Bears in Croke Park in a pre-season game in 1997.

“It’s an exciting future ahead. It would be special no matter where we played it.

“Croke Park hosted it in 1997 and that is a special venue, but that’s really in the hands of the NFL.”

Rooney said the “appetite” for the NFL has grown in Ireland in recent years, adding that the success of Down GAA’s Charlie Smyth in the NFL’s international player pathway will help to further grow the sport.

Smyth, a former goalkeeper with Down GAA, has signed a deal with the New Orleans Saints as a kicker after impressing during trials. He joined fellow Irish athletes Rory Beggan, Mark Jackson, and Darragh Leader at this year’s NFL combine.

“We’ve seen the Gaelic football players and the talented legs that they have,” Rooney said.

Rooney was speaking just after The Steelers hosted youth football camps in both Cork and Belfast. Earlier this year, the franchise hosted a kicking clinic in Dublin.

“We have hosted numerous events across the island of Ireland, and we continue to be blown away by the love that exists for the game of American Football and the appetite of young people to learn the game,” Rooney said