American football can be a divisive sport in the UK. Diehard fans tune into the BBC’s weekly magazine shows — The NFL Show and NFL This Week — and took their seats among the combined attendance of 289,041 for the four matches hosted in London this year, helping to fuel rumours that the British capital could become the home of an NFL franchise boasting some of the world’s most supreme athletes.

If you are one of those in the anti-American football camp, however, you may not wish to hear that a variation of gridiron, also hailing from North America, has designs on international expansion and has recently entered into a partnership with the British American Football Association (Bafa). Welcome to Canadian football.

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