Premier League games to be played abroad?

[Guest smnewport]

As a football fan I don't want it to happen because it is a shite idea.

 

As a realist and business-man, it will happen because the money will dictate it happens.

 

Sad but true.

[Dave]

Keegan has supported this idea according to Five Live.

[Martin Lol]

Then why did I read

 

Sir Alex Ferguson has hit out at the Premier League after not being consulted over plans for an 'international round' of fixtures.

 

He has an opinion but has got no say in the decision making, he's an employee of the men that really matter, nothing more.

[Mr. Snrub]

That's what I'm on about, though.

 

I meant what if the the players, managers etc..  from every club refused to do it, not the owners.

 

 

[Guest Brummiemag]

Its all about money as usual. And what a surprise, the 'top 5' clubs will be seeded. However if the extra revenue generated is passed on to the supporters through cheaper match tickets and season tickets then maybe it would be ok. It certainly won't be though!    The Premier League dont give a damn about the ordinary fans, if they did they wouldnt arrange lunchtime kick offs like the Villa match tomorrow where most of the Toon fans have to travel 200+ miles.

 

There will be heavy price to pay at some point in the not to distant future when football is not as popular and the corporate people lose interest, but by that time many ordinary fans will have been priced out of and lost to the game.   The Premier League are  a bunch of short sighted money grabbing w*nkers in my opinion.

[Guest Knightrider]

We are losing our clubs and soon our game. Lets face it, there is more money on the outside than on the inside so we will be pushed aside and left behind. It won't be long before big traditional clubs become touring clubs with no home or base. Clubs who will travel the globe playing out competitive fixtures and being paid fortunes in the process. With or without us. It will happen. The FA will disappear too. Maybe even the Premier League. Of course this won't happen over night, most managers and players will not stand for it in 'our time', i.e. their generation. But the next will know no different. Managers and players are in it because they love the game we all know so well, they are born into the traditions, history and identity of the game as we as fans are. But the goalposts will shift as the game shifts from nation to nation.

 

Can we do anything about it? I don't think we can. If we all stayed at home and decided to boycott home matches it would just speeden up the shift. In fact you do get the impression that fans are holding back the game and its clubs with their grande ideas, ideas that care little for traditions, history and just where a game is played.

 

If X club gets £1m per home game as is but could get 5 times that playing 'on the road' all over the world, that club will eventually follow the money, lock stock. Players, managers, the lot.

 

We will have a choice to make, do we still follow our clubs or do we move on. It wouldn't really matter what we decided to do. Me personally, I'd move on and go and support Gateshead and I imagine the vast majority of fans in the country would choose to do the same or be forced to, as no one fan could afford to follow 'their' club to America one week, Adelaide the next and so on and so on.

 

What that would at least do, is create a new game, where clubs like Gateshead would start to sell out and have to look towards building bigger stadiums. Or maybe not. Maybe the days of following a club like we do now are coming to an end, where football becomes nothing more than a TV show. Maybe in 20 years time Geordies won't follow Newcastle United (because it's upped sticks and now plays all over the world with no base) we just become armchair fans, able to pick and choose who we watch based on who plays the best football, or which players we like best, just like most foreign fans of Premier League clubs do, chopping and changing to suit.

 

Either way this is going to turn the game on it's head and revolutionise football. Once Man Utd start getting like £10m just for one game, coming back to Old Trafford to make a meagre £3m is going to fell like being robbed.

 

You imagine 38 games at £10m a pop, that's £380m quid there. Then factor in other things like shirt sales maybe, prize money for winning stuff. Big clubs could be looking at making £500m a year. Maybe this is why your billionaires are suddenly getting into the game, or why big business is looking to buy football clubs or have been doing for a number of years now.

 

I've always thought a breakaway league wouldn't be doable, because fans wouldn't have it and nor would the FA, but the more you look at it the more you can see we and they don't matter.

 

The future England side could well be made up of league 2, 1 and Championship players as the Premier League and the top players travel the world playing the game on a weekly basis. A national side just for those players from those clubs that have been left behind.

 

And if the rest of the world joins in, i.e. the Premier League becomes a mixed league between Italian, Spanish et al clubs, even more money to be had.

 

Never happen, empty stadiums....

 

Even if they gave tickets away, they'd be creaming it in still.

 

Aye, when this happens it will be the start of the end of football as we the fans love and know.

 

RIP.

[Dave]

What were you saying, Alex?

[Thespence]

I really cant be arsed with football anymore, I doubt I will renew my season ticket. I have got SKY, Setanta & pub less 100 yards away shows most games, I guess I will miss out on the great facilities at SJP!!! Which is a plastic seat. The warmth of home, decent food, SKY Bet instead of Ladbrokes being consumer of the "Premier League Product" from the armchair suits me the more I think about it. The Premier League looks good from a distance but once these fans abroad witness Boro & the 5 man midfield, Boltons cloggers, Gary O'Connor & all the other crap the Premierleague showcases week after week they will realise most of it is shite & the vast majority us go out of habit & love not because of the quality of the product.

 

The Premier League wont listen to fans if they did they wouldnt be putting these games on Jan when most of us are skint. If people want action quit/downgrade your SKY package or dump Setanta & tell them the reason is Scudbucket made Football in England lose its soul, it is no longer coming home, it is fucking off.

 

Next season live sport for me will be Falcons with there great backs + Hayman & the best basketball team in the country the Newcastle Eagles, it has been a while since I have watched Fab's team, guess I will see plenty next year.

[Guest Knightrider]

I really cant be arsed with football anymore, I doubt I will renew my season ticket. I have got SKY, Setanta & pub less 100 yards away shows most games, I guess I will miss out on the great facilities at SJP!!! Which is a plastic seat. The warmth of home, decent food, SKY Bet instead of Ladbrokes being consumer of the "Premier League Product" from the armchair suits me the more I think about it. The Premier League looks good from a distance but once these fans abroad witness Boro & the 5 man midfield, Boltons cloggers, Gary O'Connor & all the other crap the Premierleague showcases week after week they will realise most of it is shite & the vast majority us go out of habit & love not because of the quality of the product.

 

The Premier League wont listen to fans if they did they wouldnt be putting these games on Jan when most of us are skint. If people want action quit/downgrade your SKY package or dump Setanta & tell them the reason is Scudbucket made Football in England lose its soul, it is no longer coming home, it is fucking off.

 

Next season live sport for me will be Falcons with there great backs + Hayman & the best basketball team in the country the Newcastle Eagles, it has been a while since I have watched Fab's team, guess I will see plenty next year.

 

Stick with it for the next 3.5 years, I'm sure after that you can retire in peace. I agree though, football is shit. I get more joy watching the bairns play (don't mean Toon academy, mean my own nephew and his team, that level). And even that has been spoiled by adults.

[Thespence]

Stick with it for the next 3.5 years

 

It is only live football at SJP I am chucking.

 

 

[Tooj]

I agree exactly with your sentiments like Spencey.

 

I much prefer the actual all day session than the actual "product" on offer nowadays, because that's what it is, a fucking product.

[NG32]

Prem football is losing touch with the fans if you ask me, we aren't needed anymore.  They've realised they cant squeeze anymore money out of us so they'll take it abroad.

 

 

 

 

[Guest Knightrider]

Prem football is losing touch with the fans if you ask me, we aren't needed anymore.  They've realised they cant squeeze anymore money out of us so they'll take it abroad.

 

 

 

 

 

The game as a whole has lost touch, and at all levels or most of them anyway. None more so than the FA, kids' football and the top-flight. It isn't a sport anymore, it's a business model. And for fans it will increasingly become just another form of entertainment as more and more of the game is taken away from us, rather than something that is very much a part of us.

[Thespence]

I agree exactly with your sentiments like Spencey.

 

I much prefer the actual all day session than the actual "product" on offer nowadays, because that's what it is, a f****** product.

 

Seeing the lads occasionnally before & more than likely after is what makes going to match.I can live with watching the match at home & then heading into town if I want afterwards.

 

These fuckers think they have got us over a barrel & they have to an extent because I will always watch Newcastle & be a fan I just wont be going to @ SJP. As consumer I will chose how I spend my money on football in the future as football fan I would of renewed my season ticket regardless, the likes of Souey couldn't stop me but when the soul of game goes then it is maybe time TheSpence left the building as well.

 

I will be back when the bubble bursts & it will.

[Thespence]

Prem football is losing touch with the fans if you ask me, we aren't needed anymore.  They've realised they cant squeeze anymore money out of us so they'll take it abroad.

 

We should all sack Sky Sports off during the off season as protest, because the Premierleague listens to them.

[Guest Slippery Sam]

To 'advertise and promote the brand', shouldn't they be going to places where English football isn't as popular as it is in Asia, Dubai or Saudi ? Surely going to Tehran, Baghdad (sp) or Minsk would be far more of an advert for the brand?? Somehow I don't think those places will be getting a visit in the near future.

[Guest Knightrider]

To 'advertise and promote the brand', shouldn't they be going to places where English football isn't as popular as it is in Asia, Dubai or Saudi ? Surely going to Tehran, Baghdad (sp) or Minsk would be far more of an advert for the brand?? Somehow I don't think those places will be getting a visit in the near future.

 

It's not about promoting the brand to a wider audience, it's about promoting the brand to a bigger paying audience, or where the advertisers and sponsors are which is in your big cities, nations and towns and not some obscure place where they couldn't rub two pennies together.

[1878]

To 'advertise and promote the brand', shouldn't they be going to places where English football isn't as popular as it is in Asia, Dubai or Saudi ? Surely going to Tehran, Baghdad (sp) or Minsk would be far more of an advert for the brand?? Somehow I don't think those places will be getting a visit in the near future.

 

Yeah. It's nothing to do with promoting the sport or the league.

 

Lets face it, it doesn't need promotion whatsoever. Football is the most popular sport in the world and the Premier League is the most popular football league in the world. It doesn't get any better than that.

 

I can understand the NFL holding games abroad because outside of North America hardly any fucker watches it apart from the Superbowl once a year.

[oldtype]

Speaking from the perspective of a Far East "Glory Hunter," I don't want this either.

 

Our domestic leagues are having a hard enough time as it is trying to interest people who just want to watch the Premiership on the telly. What happens when the Premiership now actually comes in for a weekend every year, steals our stadia from our hometown clubs, and start a media circus which will no doubt leave any interest in the domestic league swept up in the dust.

 

I love Newcastle United and the Premier League too, but who do they think they are, saying that they'll just barge in and hold competetive games here with no regard for what we think. It's not like American football which basically isn't played outside of the US, these foreign countries have leageus and tems of their own. And if the Prem thinks that we're goign to drop everything and open up our stadia for them whenever they decide to waltz, in, they are sadly mistaken. We aren't beggars ffs.

 

The Japanese FA has already issued a condemnation of the proposal, and I'd be highly disappointed if the Korean FA didn't soon follow.

 

So English fans don't want it, and foreign fans don't want it. The only ones who want it are the walnut-for-brains glory hunters who follow Man U/Arsenal but would be hard pressed to name a single player from any other Prem team, and the club owners who seek to make money off those unfortunate souls.

 

Bad idea.

[Syrette]

Good to hear from a foreign perspective. Agree with all your points.

[Guest Knightrider]

Interesting angle, this will impact developing nations' games just as much. Like I said it will turn football on it's head, here there and everywhere. The game will eat itself. It may dismiss fans willy nilly without a seconds thought but they forget, their product can only come from bairns who have to fall in love with the game first. The signs are already there, less and less kids play football and football despite it's huge popularity is struggling to compete with something as small as a video console even. Meanwhile many kids have been priced out of matches. If they remove the game from the community altogether, from fans, from fathers, they will be removing it from themselves because the resource pool of future players, coaches, managers etc. will diminish hand in hand with fan bases, then what?

 

The more I think about it the more I hope this does happen, because it will kill football as it is and allow us all to build our own football the way it used to be. Local grassroots clubs will benefit hugely for one I think.

 

Why is Blyth Spartans not as big as Bolton? Because NUFC is on it's door step. Remove NUFC...

 

In the olden days when NUFC didn't do well or when we played away, your non league grounds were packed. Often reaching thousands in numbers, from Ashington to Blyth. Today? Dead.

 

Bring it on. If the game wants to commit suicide let it. Football will never ever die, not true football that's played and followed out of sheer love and joy. We'll never lose that. Maybe this is what's needed, to start all over again from scratch.

 

 

[Thespence]

Speaking from the perspective of a Far East "Glory Hunter," I don't want this either.

 

Our domestic leagues are having a hard enough time as it is trying to interest people who just want to watch the Premiership on the telly. What happens when the Premiership now actually comes in for a weekend every year, steals our stadia from our hometown clubs, and start a media circus which will no doubt leave any interest in the domestic league swept up in the dust.

 

I love Newcastle United and the Premier League too, but who do they think they are, saying that they'll just barge in and hold competetive games here with no regard for what we think. It's not like American football which basically isn't played outside of the US, these foreign countries have leageus and tems of their own. And if the Prem thinks that we're goign to drop everything and open up our stadia for them whenever they decide to waltz, in, they are sadly mistaken. We aren't beggars ffs.

 

The Japanese FA has already issued a condemnation of the proposal, and I'd be highly disappointed if the Korean FA didn't soon follow.

 

So English fans don't want it, and foreign fans don't want it. The only ones who want it are the walnut-for-brains glory hunters who follow Man U/Arsenal but would be hard pressed to name a single player from any other Prem team, and the club owners who seek to make money off those unfortunate souls.

 

Bad idea.

 

You follow the toon mate you cant be classed as glory hunter. Watching & supporting this lot is not fun, it is painful being Newcastle United fan as there is more pain involved doing this than their is getting on down to your local S & M night.

[oldtype]

Speaking from the perspective of a Far East "Glory Hunter," I don't want this either.

 

Our domestic leagues are having a hard enough time as it is trying to interest people who just want to watch the Premiership on the telly. What happens when the Premiership now actually comes in for a weekend every year, steals our stadia from our hometown clubs, and start a media circus which will no doubt leave any interest in the domestic league swept up in the dust.

 

I love Newcastle United and the Premier League too, but who do they think they are, saying that they'll just barge in and hold competetive games here with no regard for what we think. It's not like American football which basically isn't played outside of the US, these foreign countries have leageus and tems of their own. And if the Prem thinks that we're goign to drop everything and open up our stadia for them whenever they decide to waltz, in, they are sadly mistaken. We aren't beggars ffs.

 

The Japanese FA has already issued a condemnation of the proposal, and I'd be highly disappointed if the Korean FA didn't soon follow.

 

So English fans don't want it, and foreign fans don't want it. The only ones who want it are the walnut-for-brains glory hunters who follow Man U/Arsenal but would be hard pressed to name a single player from any other Prem team, and the club owners who seek to make money off those unfortunate souls.

 

Bad idea.

 

You follow the toon mate you cant be classed as glory hunter. Watching & supporting this lot is not fun, it is painful being Newcastle United fan as there is more pain involved doing this than their is getting on down to your local S & M night.

 

We need a new term for foreign toon fans. "Agony hunters" or something to that effect.

[chicago_shearer]

Speaking from the perspective of a Far East "Glory Hunter," I don't want this either.

 

Our domestic leagues are having a hard enough time as it is trying to interest people who just want to watch the Premiership on the telly. What happens when the Premiership now actually comes in for a weekend every year, steals our stadia from our hometown clubs, and start a media circus which will no doubt leave any interest in the domestic league swept up in the dust.

 

I love Newcastle United and the Premier League too, but who do they think they are, saying that they'll just barge in and hold competetive games here with no regard for what we think. It's not like American football which basically isn't played outside of the US, these foreign countries have leageus and tems of their own. And if the Prem thinks that we're goign to drop everything and open up our stadia for them whenever they decide to waltz, in, they are sadly mistaken. We aren't beggars ffs.

 

The Japanese FA has already issued a condemnation of the proposal, and I'd be highly disappointed if the Korean FA didn't soon follow.

 

So English fans don't want it, and foreign fans don't want it. The only ones who want it are the walnut-for-brains glory hunters who follow Man U/Arsenal but would be hard pressed to name a single player from any other Prem team, and the club owners who seek to make money off those unfortunate souls.

 

Bad idea.

 

Fair point really.  It is a slap in the face to the leagues in Asia and America, although I hadn't really thought of it like that.

[Thespence]

Speaking from the perspective of a Far East "Glory Hunter," I don't want this either.

 

Our domestic leagues are having a hard enough time as it is trying to interest people who just want to watch the Premiership on the telly. What happens when the Premiership now actually comes in for a weekend every year, steals our stadia from our hometown clubs, and start a media circus which will no doubt leave any interest in the domestic league swept up in the dust.

 

I love Newcastle United and the Premier League too, but who do they think they are, saying that they'll just barge in and hold competetive games here with no regard for what we think. It's not like American football which basically isn't played outside of the US, these foreign countries have leageus and tems of their own. And if the Prem thinks that we're goign to drop everything and open up our stadia for them whenever they decide to waltz, in, they are sadly mistaken. We aren't beggars ffs.

 

The Japanese FA has already issued a condemnation of the proposal, and I'd be highly disappointed if the Korean FA didn't soon follow.

 

So English fans don't want it, and foreign fans don't want it. The only ones who want it are the walnut-for-brains glory hunters who follow Man U/Arsenal but would be hard pressed to name a single player from any other Prem team, and the club owners who seek to make money off those unfortunate souls.

 

Bad idea.

 

You follow the toon mate you cant be classed as glory hunter. Watching & supporting this lot is not fun, it is painful being Newcastle United fan as there is more pain involved doing this than their is getting on down to your local S & M night.

 

We need a new term for foreign toon fans. "Agony hunters" or something to that effect.

 

We may be classed as an army by some but we dont split our ranks we are ALL: NEWCASTLE UNITED FANS  

 

Very good with "Agony Hunters" though