International Premiership Games? Thanks, But No Thanks 7 February, 2008

The Premier League have today come up with an idea to stage one Premier League game a season in another continent. The game would be in addition to the usual 38 games but it would still count in the league table. They’re saying that there would be some sort of a draw to decide who plays who but the top five might be seeded; so we would end up playing one team at home, away and one in another country.

The venues they’re thinking about are in Australia, America but mostly in Asia. We all know that the Premiership has a global appeal and it would give foreign supporters the chance to see their beloved team; and of course it would also be a rare opportunity to fans to go out to places they’ve never been before and follow their team.

When I heard about this, this afternoon I was a bit confused, I didn’t really get it. I mean I think it’s a really nice idea, and I can see every reason behind it but this extra game would jeopardise the league’s structure. For example, some teams would have an easy game and others a hard one, and the long-distance travelling could affect the players.

However I think the biggest negative that might be raised by the fans is what I’m thinking tonight. I wouldn’t really want to pay about £1,000 in travelling just to go and watch Arsenal play Birmingham. The response to that would be that these extra games are an opportunity for fans the other side of the world to get to a game. Fair enough, but it’s our club! Shouldn’t they be coming to us?

I don’t know, there will always be loads of positives and negatives. Anyway, nothing’s final yet, it’s just an idea at the moment; however it looks more likely than not that they’ll go through with it. I think it’s an interesting idea but I hope it doesn’t spoil the Premiership.

In other news we…oh hold on, there isn’t any other news, sorry. Our players’ return from international duty today so we’ll be able to see the shape our players are in tomorrow. Fingers crossed. It looks like Flamini could play against Blackburn.

Oh I almost forgot. Alex Song is doing really well at the African Nations Cup with Cameroon. He helped them reach the final tonight putting in a man of the match performance. Nice one Alex!

Thanks for reading.