Is the Premier League's Greed boundless?

[Gromit]

"The English Premier League is considering playing some matches overseas, the BBC has learned.
At a meeting in London on Thursday, all 20 clubs agreed to explore a proposal to extend the season to 39 games.

Those 10 extra games would be played at venues around the world, with cities bidding for the right to stage them."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_p rem/7232390.stm

Will 90,000 Chinese pay to watch Wigan v Derby?
Will just the big clubs get even richer?
Are the home supporters irrelevant now?

[China Doll]

You'd havepull some publicity stunt to get the whole of this country interested in Wigan v Derby let alone China.

Big clubs will get richer, smaller clubs will fail to be able to match it. The divide will increase. The premiership will become more boring and more predictable.

Absolutely not, the clubs will still need their sterling as well. They'll put a spin on it and the fans will grumble for a bit, moan on five live and still fork out. It's a cultural thing.

[Quinlad]

I'm staggered by this.

I'm all for change where it's called for. Sin bins, yes please. Bringing the physio on while the game continues, where do I sign? Make the goals bigger, you bet. The average size of a goalkepper is bigger than when the goal sizes were first set down.

But how can this be said to be improving the league format?

Aside from the sad fact that 80 year old Ernie who hasn't missed a league game in 70 years is now being marginalised, it actually f*cks up the entire league system.

Look: "It is understood the additional fixtures could be determined by a draw but that the top-five teams could be seeded to avoid playing each other."

Isn't the whole idea of a league system, that everyone plays everyone home and away. No leg-ups, no flukes. It's the fairest way of determining who's best over the season.

An extra game where the top 5 are favoured and where one relegation struggler could face Wigan while another faces Tottenham... how can that be fair?

Save it for the FA Cup if you like. But this is just idiotic.

[Quinlad]

And yes, I'm aware of the fact that I shrug at the prospect of Sharia law, economic meltdown, declining standards, knife crime etc while getting irate at this.

I lack perspective.

[carsonking]

Money, money, money, thats all the FA is all about. I like the idea of a European league where the top teams from each country play each other only, if we got rid of the top 4 in the prem, the prem would be a better place for it, as Mr Jordan said, 'bull poo people in a bull poo world'. and no i am not a palace fan.

[Hammond Egg]

The trouble with the unequal fixture lists programme is that there's an obvious solution.

Everybody plays one 'home' and one 'away' game in Kuala Lumpur or Chicago or wherever. And would season ticket prices fall to accommodate the shorter programme? Not a chance.

And you can bet your boots that the smaller clubs - Birmingham, Reading, Bolton or whoever their equivalents are the season this starts - will have to move their game against one of the big teams abroad.

The best hope to strangle this idea comes from the authorities in Asia and America who will almost certainly complain to FIFA about it inhibiting their domestic game.

[honest_joe]

Wouln't it be simpler to send them a video recording of our league matches. Friendlies have not much interest as nothing is at stake.

Behind all this are we building up to a super league where only the top teams compete against foreign opposition. This may have more relevence!