The 39Th Game

[Joe Jones]

Five years ago this week, the Premier League put forward plans to create a new round of fixtures to be played overseas. The idea was discarded fairly quickly, amid national and international condemnation, but since then there have been several developments in European football which have seen the Italian and Spanish Supercups exported overseas. This article looks at whether the English game could follow in their footsteps. Please have a look and comment!

 

http://debatehome.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/the-39th-game-revisited.html

[Chris]

I'm not sure I would support any of our competitions being played overseas. (Not League, FA or League Cup)

Friendlies serve this purpose pretty well in my opinion and when our sides feature away from home the Champions League or Europa League this gives those fans in nearby countries the chance. If this was solely to maximize revenue, It would be something else I wouldn't agree with. I wouldn't be against seeing a tour being started similar to as the NBA have done but nothing competitive which would make the fans who attend the games in our own country unable to travel away then it's a firm no. We need to keep our own fans interested and able to attend

Good write up Joe!

[Joe Jones]

Yeah I'm against it, but when I noticed that the Spanish and Italian Supercups are on their way to Beijing, it got me thinking whether it was something the English footballing bodies would have been considering. Luckily I don't think it'll happen anytime soon, even though that's because the FA needs to make use of Wembley, otherwise I'm sure they'd have offshored the Community Shield already.

[liampie]

community shield could work but money gained goes to charity right? would be bad if less went. not many suggestions in football are good and i would say this is one i dislike aswell.

[cheeky~k8]

I don't think its a good idea, so i wouldn't support it myself. We don't really get much of a say though do we.

[super_ram]

I would have thought it would be better to promote televising games overseas as much as possible rather than physically moving a fixture.Fans fork out enough to follow their teams as it is.What about when teams go on pre-season tours,isn't this promoting our football.

[Chris]

I don't believe the reasons are truly about 'promoting our football' it's more of a way to maximize income and rights. We'll always have a larger amount of interest than other leagues simply due to our history and great football nation, I'd struggle a-side from France, Italy and Spain to name a country where people outside of their respective countries support a team based in one of them. You watch television and the majority of shirts seen on the news are Chelsea and Manchester united (especially in Africa) Some will say this just them wearing shirts but I can recall a number of times seeing someone saying 'I'm a x fan'. How many stupid things do they have to come up with?