Disgraceful: PL considers taking games overseas!

Disgraceful: PL considers taking games overseas!

This is such a stupid plan! And treats the league and clubs far too much like products far more like the NFL teams.

I mean in America the NFL teams are completely treated like franchises, in that a new owner can buy the team, change the name and move them to a completely different city. There are NFL teams that existed for decades that are now gone! Moved to another city with a completely different name, and the old stadiums demolished!

Is this the heartless way we want football to go? This is the first major step towards it! A lot of small steps have been taken since the money started going nuts anyway!

You are right it is a disgrace. they would never be happy with 10 games, it would become a circus

"When we had to suffer the team is a lion because they suffer together." 4 July 2020 at Wolverhampton Wanderers
Arteta on his team's first away victory at a club above them in the Premiership since September 2015 at Leicester.

A very bad idea.
Totally agree with the article.

When I first heard about this idea I thought great. A chance to possibly see same top quality footy as I live o/s. But after more thinking it may be too disruptive to be a goer. In saying that footy is the biggest sport on the planet and the EPL is the best comp in football. The EPL must advertise globally to keep in front of the competition for the global sporting dollar. And the best advertising for football is playing the game. So maybe preseason matches could be played away from europe to get the EPL the exposure they require to stay ahead of the pack.

Since the end of WW1, 1919, when the FA restarted its 4 tier football league, with Arsenal fc in the 1st div, there’s only ever been one club to have never been relegated from Div 1/ EPL.

Arsenal fc

Let’s keep making history

All fans of every club should unite and make the EPl see this is folley.

Well said everyone - a poor idea. And would ruin the league.

this is the thin edge of the wedge. Soon we will end up like NFL Franchises - with clubs and players even further away from the fans. Fergie was very strong in his condemnation of this suggestion and even went further and said that he will not be around when this happens. It seems Gill and co didn't think it was worth telling Sir Alex.

Ferguson has condemned the Premier League after claiming he was not consulted before it revealed plans to stage some matches across the world.
All 20 clubs agreed to explore a proposal to extend the English season by one game to 39 games from 2010-11.

"They should have been enquiring and having discussions with managers and players before they come out with all this stuff and make an issue of it.

"They can't keep their mouth shut down there," said the Old Trafford boss.

"What disappoints me is Manchester United chief executive David Gill said 'keep this quiet, we're discussing it' and then it's in the papers.

"These issues should be discussed internally by clubs before they come to this position we are now in but until I speak to David Gill again I have nothing more to say about it."

Fifa has confirmed it will examine the Premier League's proposals at its executive committee meeting on 14 March.

Uefa president and former France international Michel Platini described the plan as "a strange and comical idea.

He said: "I laughed because it will never be received by Fifa, by the fans and by the national associations. It's a nonsense idea.

"I am sure (Fifa) will never accept it because it's not good for football."

The Frenchman added: "Soon you will have in England no English (chairman), you already have no English coach, you have no English players and maybe now you will have no clubs playing in England. It's a joke."

However, Sunderland boss Roy Keane and Newcastle counterpart Kevin Keegan have backed the Premier League plans, with Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger broadly in favour.

"I'm not against an innovative attitude if it respects the competitive side of our league, if it respects the fans and promotes the quality of our Premier League," Wenger told the BBC.

And Keane also told the BBC: "It's great. Change is good but that depends who you are playing in that extra game. If it's one of the top four, I might argue."

"It will give everybody in the world a chance to see it in areas where they don't get a chance to see football like that," said Keegan.

Keane added: "The Premier League has been brilliant and Richard Scudamore (Premier League chief executive) spoke brilliantly. They are looking at the proposals and do everything properly.

"It's three years away and I think we should all be trying to be positive about it."

"It's more football when our fixture list is already more cluttered than anywhere else," Davies told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Those 10 extra games would be played at five different venues, with cities bidding for the right to stage them.

The extra games are expected to net the clubs in the region of an extra £5m each.

MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis said there is "a thirst for Premier League games" in the USA and around the world.

"If this were to happen it's something that we would be involved in," he said.

"We are the premier promoter of international soccer in North America and clearly we would like to get involved."

When Manchester United played a testimonial in Saudi Arabia in January they reportedly earned about £1m for the 6,000-mile round-trip.

Davies added: "I would much prefer a winter break, if we want our teams to win. The problem is we neither win at international level nor do we win the big club competitions with any degree of regularity at all."

"I'm not surprised about the proposal or the reaction to it for a league so popular around the world and full of players from all around the planet to want to exploit that position is entirely predictable.

"Fans have got to be aware that the game has changed and the game is a global game, so there has to be a balance.

"To be fair, they are not taking a home game out of the current programme and shifting it to Bangkok. The intention is to have an extra game - an extra round of matches."

Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Gordon Taylor expressed concern that the plans would put more pressure on top-flight players.

"I can't see it being very helpful, in a very crowded fixture programme, to introduce one more game," he told BBC Sport.

"It's trying to get a quart into a pint pot, it's driven commercially. From the business side of things it will look good but you have to remember that this is a sporting business and you are dealing with human beings.

"This will increase the injury problems of the top-flight players. It is going to the well too many times and it is treating players as commodities.

"If you encourage caution then you are considered to be out of date but that is not always the case.

"Change is not always for the better, change can sometimes affect the very strength of the roots that have caused you to be the most popular game in the world," added Taylor.

The BBC's 606 website has been inundated with posts, with the majority of the 4,800 comments so far critical of the proposals and some calling for fans to unite against the proposals.

The Football Supporters' Federation has launched its 'No to game 39' poll to fight the Premier League's plans.

To get around the unfairness of the extra game, I can see the Premier League bringing in Rugby League style playoffs and Grand Final, bringing in even more revenue, and I can also see clubs demanding an end to relegation so they don't miss out on the gravy train.

The Premier League is now so commercialised that there is nothing that they won't do to keep the money flooding in.

It looks like FIFA and FA are going to kick this stupid idea into touch.