I don't know why they are calling it an extension of the season. Having points on the line for one of these games would be really unfair. In a title race the #1 team could get drawn against the #20 while #2 draws team #6 - not the way a title should be decided with a bonus "gimme" fixture for some teams. This could be good as long as it is really just an exhibition game with a glorified name to make people abroad think it is important.
This is a dumb idea. If they want to play a game abroad make it the Charity Shield, or whatever its called these days. The Italians did it for a while.
yeah but they need to sell these games at Max Profit - why do you think the clubs are doing this in the first place
To be fair to the old coot, he would hate this idea and I bet we'll get a quote from him on it. He's always been very into the idea of footballing associations having "sovereignty" over their country, i.e. teams not touring during the domestic season and taking fans away from domestic clubs. I think his ideas on home-grown players feeds into that. It's just a hilariously bad idea. I hope to God Arsenal are not one of the proponents of this. I'd be stunned if Wenger didn't hate it. There's already a clusterf*ck of games during the Christmas and early January period, the last thing players need is to be jetted off to Tokyo so a bunch of wannabees in replica Ronaldo shirts can sit quietly and watch. Part of me wants to teach myself Spanish or Italian and follow a club from those leagues. Spanish football is much more in tune with the average fan, even at Barcelona or Madrid.
Since when has it been about the players? They are just the hired help.... Man U headhunted one of the saatchis big wigs to target 350m global fans - the strategy was unveiled at the last cannes advertising festival. the domestic market cannot fulfil their desperate need for cash - nor liverpools. 300-700m quid loans need to be financed mate.
It wouldn't surprise me if they were the ones who lobbied for this. Despite their record turnover, their profits were next to nothing once the loan repayments got factored in. Mid season trips to Saudi Arabia to make 1m when they could have taken a much needed rest? Come on, just because they have to whore themselves out to pay the bills doesn't mean we all have to.
Yeah it's just disgusting. Unfortunately there is a collective abrogation of responsibility amongst the powers that be to deal with the situation. The FA should never have allowed the FAPL breakaway, they should have never allowed ownership to be financed on debt, and the government should have taken a hard line towards foreign ownership and especially foreign ownership financing through debt. It's one of the things about this country that pisses me off to no end, how Labour allowed it to get raped by interests taking money out of the UK with ********-all in the way of safeguards. It's getting to the point where I'm getting sick of it. You just know franchising, the end of relegation and so on is coming. Where will it end? We'll end up with the NFL eventually and when that happens I'm off to Palace.
I'm opposed to this counting towards any league table, but I think the idea is a sound idea in some respects. Unfortunately this is being couched in terms of how the money will be such a huge factor instead of how this will will bring the game to fans who don't live in Islington, East Ham, Manchester, or anywhere else in England. I think a better way of doing this is to do the Charity Shield overseas, which only involves 2 teams. It could be rotated among different international cities every year (NYC, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Dubai, Toronto, etc). Like someone else said, if United got drawn against Derby and The Arsenal got drawn against Blackburn, that wouldn't be too fair (I also assume they wouldn't allow local derbys to take place overseas). Good idea, terrible plan to make it a reality.
load of bollocks cant they just do a structured friendly tournament or tour/exibition games abroad or something?
terrible idea - such a money grab by the FA. the fact that they would try and schedule these games in january when their is already a fixture pile up is poor planning. arsene won't be a proponent of this plan either. he already avoids unnecessary preseason trips to the states and asia for $$ and just recently criticized manure for their brief holiday travels saying it would hurt the squad down the road....
Stupid money milking exercise. The last few relegation battles has been decided on the last day. Can you imagine how unfair it would be if one of the relegation candidates get drawn to a strong club while two others get drawn to each other? Or say we and Man U are fighting for the title, and Man U ends up being drawn to Derby while we are drawn to Blackburn?
a) The idea of playing a legit game abroad sucks. Period. Anyone in favor of it care nil for the integrity of the League structure. b) I fail to see how a real game abroad will pull in that much more than a friendly/charity match. - TV? Wouldn't the audience for this be the same regardless of location? - Gate? Seems to me that the attendance would be the same for a friendly, based on those few tours abroad that we've seen. Fans will show up to see big names/teams regardless. Sure seems the biggest way this increases money is to add the extra game. If that's the ploy then add one more team to the table and play 40 games, keeping the double round-robin intact! c) Dear Lord, if they're even seriously considering this then surely they're muttering the phrase "play-offs" in the back of their mind. Help us if they go that far. Now I'm depressed.
Dumbest idea, EVER!! In January, in New York? Bejing? Tokyo? in the winter? indoors? on plastic? The PFA has go full tilt apsesh!t on this idea.
Which means that the outcome of a relegation battle could be decided not on the quality of your team but on the luck of your draw, which is why it is certainly unfair. One more thing, I am sure the big 4 clubs will have no problem selling out matches aboard, but no foreigner is going to pay to see the likes of Derby or Wigan to pay; heck I am not sure if they would pay to see mid table teams like Blackburn or Aston Villa. That's why it's a stupid move.
The idea isn't to make more money in one day, it is to make more money over the course of years by growing fanbases. Like it or not, England seems pretty tapped out. I have no problem whatsoever with them playing an official league match outside of England, or adding a game, etc. Over time it would all even out. Playing it in January seems dubious as it is already the most loaded month in the schedule, but I'm sure a schedule can be worked out. More than likely some of the January cup rounds could just be moved into February mid-week spots which aren't always so full. The fanbases (and moneyflow) outside of England are just so much bigger than the ones in England, at some point it just becomes more logical to start catering to the 300 million people as opposed to the 10 million people.
If they have five weekend match pairs as described above, with the big four seeded out from each other... Then there's a significant chance your city would get a match with Pool, ManU, Chelsea, or Arsenal. That alone will raise the excitement for the two matches as a whole and with creatively done ticket packages, etc... they could sell most games. Especially with the novelty of it all...