Let’s get this straight right from the start: The idea of playing a Premier League game in a foreign country is stupid, unrealistic, probably unfair and just unnecessary. It’s just the latest idea that the money hungry suits who run the league have cooked up in order to further line their already bulging pockets.
At the risk of sounding like a little Englander, this is our league. It is the English Premier League. It should remain in England. If this is allowed to happen, how long will it be before we have 2, 3 or 4 games per season played abroad?
The arguments in favour seem to point to the success the NFL have had for a few years now, taking one game to Wembley every season. The stadium sells out and the game gets a huge amount of t.v. coverage. However you never hear about what the American fans think about it over here. The NFL season is much shorter than our football season – around 16 games – so you’d have to imagine that they are pretty pissed. To only have 8 games at home per season in the first place, and then to have one of those games taken away from you for the sake of some billionaire owners’ bank account? If I was a season ticket holder I’d go mad.
I don’t get the chance to go to Old Trafford very often at all, but I still hate the idea of a home game being taken away. Part of the magic of going to watch your team is the trip to the stadium. Actually going to your team’s home ground. When I get the rare opportunity to go I’m just as excited about that moment when you walk up the steps into the stand, as I am about seeing the players, anticipating a result.
On the subject of fairness, it isn’t just the fans that would lose out. Who decides which games are played overseas for example? There’s no way that a fixture abroad can be arranged so that it would be fair to every club.
If a team only needed 1 point to avoid relegation, who decides whether their game abroad is against Chelsea or Burnley, potentially the difference between survival and the trap-door to the Championship? You can bet that derby games would definitely not be moved, but why are these games any more important in the scheme of things? They are all worth three points to the winners, so they should all have equal importance. None should be turned into a glorified friendly in some far flung corner of the globe.
The simple beauty of the league structure is the way that everybody plays each other twice, once at our place and once at yours. Whilst the overseas game would clearly be played at a neutral ground, the identity of a club’s opponents would definitely be something that managers would contest. They’ll find qualms with whichever team they face, it’s in their nature.
Playing at home is a huge advantage for some clubs, and often home form is the defining factor in how a club fares over a season. Reducing that advantage even slightly seems unfair.
The club should belong to the community. Yes, they all want to gain more fans which in turn produces more revenue, but most teams already go on tours, so there is no real case for expanding global reach. The league is already a worldwide sensation, you only have to watch comic relief to see the reach of the league’s popularity, when an African kid runs past in an Arsenal shirt.
Ticket prices are already way too high and prohibitive to a lot of families being able to see live football. Taking games abroad only increases the problem. The clubs and the league don’t need the money but this is the only reason I can think of that they have for wanting to do it.
Maybe at most you could play one of the existing glorified friendlies abroad, the community shield would be a perfect example. This has been done with some success in other countries already.
But going back to the original point. This is the English Premier League. It has to stay in England.