Chargers Set for Wembley Date

American football is expected to return to Wembley in the autumn with the San Diego Chargers playing the New Orleans Saints. The game is likely to take place on October 26 with a formal announcement expected in Glendale, Arizona, the venue for Sunday's Super Bowl, this week.

"We want to go," the Chargers president, Dean Spanos, a member of the league's international committee, said. "I'm cautiously optimistic." The Saints would be the "home" team in London, sacrificing a game at their Super dome arena.

The NFL announced earlier this month that it would return to the UK in 2008, Wembley having staged the first regular-season NFL game played outside the Americas last October, when the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins 13-10. The game drew a crowd of more than 81,000 but the decision to stage it was criticized when the pitch failed to recover before England's costly 3-2 Euro 2008 defeat to Croatia 23 days later. After October 26 Fabio Capello's team would not stage a competitive home World Cup qualifying match until they play Ukraine on April 1 2009.

An NFL spokesman, Greg Aiello, would only say that the Chargers were among the teams being considered for the game. Commissioner Roger Goodell is not expected to announce details of the London match until his Super Bowl media conference on Friday.

In 2006 the NFL approved plans to stage up to limited number of regular-season games outside the United States every year until 2011.