DISQUS

Kyle · 1 year ago

As a yank, I'd love to see a real EPL contest live. MLS isn't even comperable, and I don't have the means to travel to the U.K./England just to catch a match.

Hopefully the Twin Cities (Minneapolis/St. Paul) put in a large enough bid. I think it'd even be worth a weekend trip to Chicago (7-8 hours by car).

Nick · 1 year ago

You came nowhere close to addressing why this is a bad idea. I don't think the major opposition to this idea stems from a threat to the "romanticized" game. It's generally a bad scheduling idea that threatens the structure of the league. I would be just as opposed if they wanted to play 39 games in England. Also, sorry Kyle... there is no way the Twin Cities will bid on this. It's New York, LA and Toronto. I'm a yank by the by.

wanderer_abroad · 1 year ago

I don't see how FIFA will agree to this when they discuss this at their next meeting. Sepp Blatter and most FIFA officials have been criticizing the Premiership for years on the amount of games. Adding an extra fixture would surely fatigue players even more, especially considering it would be abroad. Taking into account the climate, jet lag and general fatigue by that point in the season, it seems to me that this idea is just unfeasable.

dragonki2012 · 1 year ago

Here's the problem:
Everyone knows that clubs don't really care about the fan's anymore, just their money.

Well I live in the USA and I'd love to see a match between any EPL sides, weather it's Derby v. Spurs, or Arsenal v. Man utd.

But the reality of the situation is that people that DON'T love the EPL for all it offers, will only want to see the top 4 play.

I oppose the idea, and I oppose it for only ONE reason, and that's the players will become too fatigued. Traveling across the world takes more energy than playing a 90min. game.
EXAMPLE:
Manchester United recently went to play in Dubai with it's full squad. When they returned a few day's later to London to play Spurs, they were dominated. I'm not a Utd fan so it was a pleasure to watch, but sad to see the players play so bad.

The reality is that climates change and so do sleeping hours, it takes the body longer to adapt than it does the brain.

If a team travels from London to Sydney to play in 110degree weather and then back to UK and plays at St. James's park where it's 5 degree weather, that's a HUGE jump. Especially for teams that compete in 4 competitions at a time, and have 2 games a week.

So NO, it's a bad idea because it doesn't take into consideration of how the players will feel and play afterwards. And if my team goes across the world and plays a crappy EPL team and has to come back and face Man. United or Arsenal(which haven't been anywhere), it's a guaranteed loss.

kkfla737 · 1 year ago

This is one of the most disgraceful and disappointing things in the recent history of football. The English FA or FIFA need to step in and threaten to levy sanctions against the Premier League if this goes forward.

I have never seen and heard of something so contrived and so money driven in professional sports and American sports which don't hold my interest any more on the professional level are about as corporate and money driven as they get. I could go on and on about this but the readers have heard all my arguments before. This is totally unacceptable and I believe FIFA should threaten to shut down the Premier League and force all of its clubs back to the Coca Cola Football League if this goes forward. Holding competitive matches in nations that already have FIFA sanctioned first divisions is ILLEGAL. If FIFA does nothing the world body itself is useless and should be dissolved.

Kent · 1 year ago

As a Premier League fan in the states, I would love to see some of these teams play without having to go overseas, but I think the main issue with the proposal is the extra game. Does this mean that some teams would play each other three times a year instead of two? So one team gets a relegation bound team three times and another gets one of the big clubs three times a year. This would have huge a effect on the all the teams.

Jeff Hash · 1 year ago

Kent:

As it stands now, yes, it means a team will have to play 1 team three times and everybody else twice. So somebody could end up with an extra match against Manchester United while, at the other end, somebody gets an extra match with somebody like Derby County.

To me, this plan is doomed because of this aspect. When, not if, somebody gets knocked out of the title, European competition, or the league period because of such circumstances, you will never will hear the end of it.

I'll go if it happens. But this plan, quite frankly, stinks.

Michael · 1 year ago

Good points, everyone. Obviously there's so much debate and back and forth about this issue that I couldn't address everything I would've liked to.

Dragonki, I completely understand your point about the player getting fatigued and that would have its effects for the next few games, thus diluting the product. From what I've read though, the plan is to give teams the week off before and after this round of games to help address that issue.

As Jeff said, it could be tricky in figuring out who that third game would be against for each team. I would safely assume there would be no derby matches played abroad, and the plan calls for the top four teams to be protected from playing against each other.

In my post, I never really talked about it why I'm in favor of this plan; I spent most of the time addressing why fans should learn to embrace this possibility. A chance to see a competitive match from the most entertaining league in the world in person is something that I, and a lot of others, couldn't pass up. Why shouldn't the Premier League take the great thing they have going and bring it to the world? It's a win-win proposition: They make money, and the fans get to enjoy a closer glimpse into the Premiership.

As I said, I'd love to go on and on but there's not enough time to cover this story from every angle. I understand why people are opposed to it and that's obviously fine.

Good debate everyone.

steviethek · 1 year ago

As an American EPL fan, I dream of going TO England to watch EPL games in their proper grounds, with the two teams' fans - part of what makes the EPL unique. These new games wouldn't be 'genuine' from that perspective.

Some of the EPL teams came over here for friendlies and I think that's fine - perhaps even have EPL vs. EPL teams in off-season friendlies, but not League matches. There's such a thing as squeezing the Golden Goose too hard.