MEXICO CITY -- The NFL says the Nov. 21 Monday night game in Mexico City between the Oakland Raiders and the Houston Texans sold out within minutes.

A league statement says tickets went on sale at 11 a.m. Thursday and were gone in under a half-hour.

Mexico is one of the few countries outside of the United States with a large fan base for the sport that people here call "American football." League officials have said it's their biggest foreign market.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in the statement that the rapid sellout "further confirms what a passionate fan base we have in Mexico."

The game at the cavernous Azteca Stadium will mark the league's return to Mexico for the first time since the San Francisco 49ers and the Arizona Cardinals squared off in 2005.