Today marks the death of top flight football as we know it. The 20 Premier League teams agreed in principal to plans to have them each playing an extra game abroad, to satisfy the ever-increasing greed of the boardroom fat cats and foreign owners.
Under the new proposals, each club will play 39 matches per season, with cities around the World being invited to bid for the extra 10 games. The idea is apparently to promote the league around the globe.
What a stupid idea it is.
This is the English Premier League. Yes, Manchester United do have a lot of followers in Asia. Why? Because the Asian leagues are crap, so perhaps a better idea would be to try and promote those leagues within Asia and give everyone a local club to be proud of. This would also make international football more competetive.
Ever since football and Sky TV came together, the sport has become more obsessed with money and ‘creating a brand’ than winning trophies. It won’t be long before the title is decided by a play-off and we have to sit and endure a four-hour farce just like the Super Bowl. There’ll be commercial breaks every five minutes so that McDonalds can advertise their latest McArtery-Clogger and a half-time show so long that everyone forgets what they tuned in to watch.
The growing number of clubs being bought out by foreign businessmen is something that’s been worrying me for some time. These people have no interest in football matters, and no emotional attachment to the game. Their aim is to turn the Premier League into a shiny big pantomime competition to fund their new fleet of Bentleys and their private jet.
And what about the lower league clubs? They get to carry on clinging to survival.
Exactly. The most unsurprising thing about it all is that all 20 clubs said they would ‘consider’ the idea. They all just saw it as another method of huge income. I’m very glad I’m not a fan of a Premiership club, their club’s forgot them a long time ago as they fly off into the sunset to play against Derby in Bangkok!
But I know a United ‘fan’ from Exeter, does he care if United play one more game a season abroad? Is he angry at the Premiership for this? Would he be incensed by the ridiculous concept?
Of course not because he he’s never seen United play and supports them from his armchair. If he gets to see one more game on Sky Sports for his money than thats great news for him, if the club can invest the cash into a new player than thats great as well!
It’s the real fans who are going to be driven mad by the whole saga but their clubs stopped caring and started catering for fans such as my friend!