The End of the Premier League as We Know It?

By: Daryl | February 7th, 2008

Premier League Sells What’s Left Of Its Soul I double checked, and it’s not April 1st. So this news is real. The 20 Premier League clubs have voted to approve extending the Premier League season from 38 to 39 games per club. The resulting ten extra fixtures would be played overseas, in whichever foreign cities can cough up the most cash. So that’s it. The Premier League has finally gone and done it and sold the tattered remains of what was once its soul.

Playing games overseas is one thing. Given the massive foreign interest in the Premier League it was almost inevitable, and if the league had just allowed clubs to play one game per season in a foreign land then maybe we could still respect them. Maybe.

What really matters here – what basically ruins the Premier League – is the extra game. It robs the league of all integrity, both spiritually and mathematically. There were 38 games because the twenty teams all played each other home and away. It made sense. And it guaranteed that whoever finished top after 38 games was the deserving champion.

But the new plan is draw the 39th round of games at random. Apparently the big boys will be seeded so they can avoid each other. But what if we had a close title race like this season, and Man Utd played Derby in the extra game while Arsenal got Tottenham? Fergies men trample Derby 4-0, while Wenger has to fight out a 1-1 draw in the North London derby. In Los Angeles. Man Utd then win the league courtesy of these two extra points, but the title means nothing because there wasn’t a level playing field. Suddenly the “league” bit of the Premier League is meaningless.

And what about the players? Aren’t they always asking for less games? Somehow that must have been misinterpreted as “we’d like to cram an extra game in, and we’d like to travel across time zones to do it.”

The other huge problem is that this could finally reveal the Premier League as the Emperor with no clothes. Sure, cities will pay big money to host Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and a few other teams. But how much will Tokyo bid to see Middlesbrough take on Bolton. Not a lot, I’d imagine.

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Category: English Premier League

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Michael

I doubt there is really any market whatsoever in these foreign countries for the smaller clubs.
Matt

The emperor with no clothes? Too true. Leagues in America, Australia, Japan, and China may not have teams that can compete with ManU, Arsenal, Liverpool, and Chelsea, but England does not have them either. Seriously. Let me be the 30th person to tell EPL to keep Wigan and Bolton and Portsmouth to themselves. I'd rather watch Toronto v. Chicago or KC v. Colorado.
Adam M

Be cause I'm not very well off and the economy isn't booming, I'm not going to be able to go to England and see another premier league match for some time, so it would be nice to see one occasionally. That said, culturally it is a disaster and shouldn't happen.

I'd like to add: England has poached the best talent from other countries from 15 years. I am thus a little amused by the xenophobic rants and the "oh poor me" whining they are sending out.
Lisa

I get the impulse to have a game overseas, but why the extra game? The idea of an extra game is bad enough as it is, but the random draw for the extra game is just ridiculous.

I'm with Ryan, if they're going to go through with the idea to play a game overseas, it should be one of the games in the regular schedule. Give each team the option to play one home game outside England at a location of their choice, and add a restriction on the max number of games any one team plays overseas to prevent the big teams from spending the whole season flying from one country to another.

(And what the heck do orange wedges have to do with anything?)
RyanJ

Definately a dumb idea to have an extra game, but I would welcome seeing a premier league game here in the states. I probably would have the same intensity and passion as in britain, but It would help the growth of the sport in the US. If they do anything they need to include this change into the regular scheduled 38 games
Johnny

Orange wedges gave me miasma.
matt

yea this sucks because the one's of us who can't afford to fly to england and pinch a ticket off a scalper might get to see these guys live. fuck them for that. i know it's a cash grab...but seriously. if portsmouth plays everton or some other random match like that happens within a 3-4 hour drive from me or a bunch of other dudes i know who dont try and pretend like the level of style and competition is even close to the mls then we'll all be there.

quit acting like you've had something to do with the tradition of english soccer cause you started out with orange slices in kindergarten. and for the english fans who are opposed to it, grow the hell up...if it was still "your game" we'd have a bunch of slow white dudes slogging around while the "fans" were trying to beat the ever living shit out of each other and whoever else was a round to boot.

i hope it works out for them...cash grab or not.
Blue Devil Brad

But honestly, what are the other alternatives? Do you want them to take away a home game from one team? That's what the NFL did this year with the London game - is that fair? How do you decide which team loses the home game?
Or what the NHL did was they had a two game series in London between the Kings and Ducks. Now neither teams home fans will see that matchup, because both were played overseas.

If the game is going to count in the standings (which is the entire idea - bids for a friendly with second stringers would be way lower), the game has to come from somewhere.
bluemeanies

Paging Sunil Gulati. I extremely advise you to put it out there that any US stadium that makes a bid for one of these games gets put on a 50yr blacklist for national team fixtures. Paging also the heads of the Japanese, Korean, Canadian and Australian FA's. Probably the only way to stop it, if there is a way. The English certainly won't come to their senses.
djl

Ridiculous. Mind-bogglingly dumb.

If they play anywhere near me, I'll ignore them and continue to spend my money supporting my local club.

The Premiership is a fine league, but really, there's maybe six or teams worth spending a bunch of money to see. Given the choice between spending $40-$50 for bad seats to see Middlesbrough play Wigan or spending $15-$20 for a good MLS match, I'll take the MLS match any day of the week.
jz

The extra game really is a dumb idea. But if they are going to do this, I'll definitely be getting tickets if they come to my neck of the woods.
Sam

Jan: Don't get me wrong, I don't oppose this idea because of the fact that matches would be played overseas. Hell, if Spurs came to my hometown, I'd piss my pants. It's the 39th match that pisses me off. Adding a random match is totally stupid, it washes out all integrity the Premier League ever had, and like Daryl said, could throw away Team X's bid to crack the top four because of that one match. It just doesn't make sense.
Jan

Let's look at it this way: the EPL clash of titans drew 8m viewers worldwide plus a few extra in pubs. That's a bit short of the advertised 1bn, but it's worth looking where these viewers come from: http://www.independent.co.uk/s...

1,4m were watching in the UK, the rest was watching from elsewhere in the world. Clubs and players always go on about how important the fans are and how they would be nothing without their fans. Then it's only fair the clubs go where they've got the most fans, and that's no longer England. ;-)
Sam

I swear, I have the day off from school today, and this just ruined it. How, just how, do they believe this is going to fly with non-douche bag fans? Fuck, this is terrible. I'm going to try and find an online petition.
tedhill

I agree, this is stupid for them. But if they are going to it, I would suggest they pair the teams according to the previous years standings

1st in Premier league - Promotion Playoffs Winner
2nd - 2nd place in Championship
3rd - Championship Winners
4th - 17th in Premier League
5th - 16th
6th - 15th
7th - 14th
8th - 13th
9th - 12th
10th - 11th

It's still not totally fair, but it seems reasonable.
Johnny

Next stop, 'Playoffs'
Sam

Holy shit. If this happens, I don't know what I'll do. This can't happen.
Shane

Doomsayer.
Michael

Very lame.
old apple

seems asinine to me