The Rams were due to face the New England Patriots at Wembley on October 28 in the latest installment of the NFL's international series, which has seen games played in London in each of the last five years.

The Rams had agreed to give up a home game to play the fixture, and had also signed up to play in London over the next two years.

But the team's lease agreement on the Edward Jones Dome in St Louis requires the team to play all of its home games in the stadium.

NFL commission Roger Goodell said on Friday he was optimistic of resolving the issue, and that the London games would go ahead in some form regardless.

Optimism

"We're going to play the London games," he said. "We hope it will be with the Rams and the New England Patriots next year. That's what we planned...but there are issues that obviously are going to have to get resolved. We know there are discussions going on. We hope they will get resolved shortly."

A statement on the NFL UK website said: "The reason for the postponement is to allow the Rams and their stadium authority time to finalise the technical amendments to the lease required under the terms of the Rams' commitment to London.

"The Rams have expressed optimism that a resolution is near, and we will provide updates as information becomes available."