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George Smiley

Would you accept the 39th game now?

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Just found this on the MSN comments board regarding the FIFA corruption scandal involving Qatar.I don''t know if it has been discussed before but we were a million miles away from the Prem when this ludicrous idea first came about.

" I have never been for the "39th" game, out in the middle east or China etc. Never thought it was a good idea until now. Imagine Sepp Twatters face when he hears that the Prem League are having that 39th game in Outer Mongolia, he would never be able to go anywhere without seeing a sign outside saying "Live Premiership Football". I hope this extra game resurfaces so we can really shove the Premier League right down his scrawny little throat."

Would love to know how many of our  fans would be up for this ,....a game in  some far flung Asian country with 3 precious points at stake.

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I would love it if I had the chance to go if I was in England and had to watch then I would be very dissappointed

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Why would you think Blatter dislikes the Premier League, which is the most successful (commercially) in the world and thus grows the interest for football globally and thus benefits FIFA? And anyway he is in FIFA which has very little to do with the Premier League.

 

People seem to have a real "they are all anti-England" chip on their shoulders. The only issue UEFA or FIFA have with the Premier League is clubs like Man City and previously Chelsea (although Abramovic was very important in pushing through the FFP regulations) out spending everyone and distortings the balance in football through despite all losing money.

 

The 39th game is a stupid idea, and was never serious, it was proposed as a red herring to show people how bad things could be and that they should be pleased with what we already have. The only thing I can imagine happing is something similar to the NFL when a regular game within the season is played somewhere else to "spread the love" although this is still very slim. The only clubs interested in doing so would be those with a smaller profile and they wouldn''t be such a commercial draw in other countries.

 

What is often misunderstood is that although Premier League football is shown to 500m households (or whatever the figure is) many people watch it with passing interest - similar to when Channel 4 showed Italain football here - they will watch it on TV but probably wouldn''t pay too much to watch a live game. Attendances for these Asian tours are often fairly low and when they are high it is often due to 1,000s of free tickets given to schools etc to make stadiums full.

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[quote user="Ncfc26"]I would love it if I had the chance to go if I was in England and had to watch then I would be very dissappointed[/quote]

For what it''s worth I would rather see the same amount of clubs in all four divisions, but I have a better chance of filling a barrow with Rocking horse poo.

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39th game is ridiculous. If they really must do games away from the UK then it should be a matter of either teams electing to give up one of their home games for it (with the consent of the away team), or mandated that 1 home game for all teams are played elsewhere. Personally I''d go with the former, well actually I''d go to neither.

A 39th game destroys the symmetry of the season, and makes the league fundamentally unfair. Who get to decide who has to play Man U 3 times rather than Swansea?

The one major change to the structure of the Premiership I would make would be to bring in a play off for the 4th Champion''s League spot. That''d bring in big crowds and a lot of money. Maybe make them 1 legged at neutral (maybe even foreign stadiums?) to avoid players playing too many games and to avoid teams playing for draws away. Then a final at Wembley. That''d be a nice way to end the season and might give a few more clubs a chance to play in a worthwhile European competition.

While I''m at it, bring back the Cup Winners Cup, get rid of the group stages in the Europa League and give the winner a Champions League spot.

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not being condescending to Norwich of course but is anyone in Beijing or Delhi really going to give a hoot against Norwich Vs Wolves in the premiership?the 39th game would only work for 5 or 6 premiership sides.

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real marid bought the la liga. selling there training ground for like 300mil euro to the spainish government which allowed them to buy their galactico

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[quote user="Bethnal Yellow and Green"]

The 39th game is a stupid idea, and was never serious, it was proposed as a red herring to show people how bad things could be and that they should be pleased with what we already have. The only thing I can imagine happing is something similar to the NFL when a regular game within the season is played somewhere else to "spread the love" although this is still very slim. The only clubs interested in doing so would be those with a smaller profile and they wouldn''t be such a commercial draw in other countries.

[/quote]

 

They are though. If you use the NFL as an example, the games in England have always sold out regardless of the teams. So far it''s been the Miami Dolphins, New York Giants, New Orleans Saints, San Diego Chargers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the New England Patriots. This year it''s Tampa Bay again and the Chicago Bears.

 

The only two real stand outs there are the Giants and the Patriots in terms of global fans (The Dolphins in the 90s maybe) and yet you''ll find Wembley sold out every time with plenty of fans for each side because quite simply, you can''t watch the NFL live over here apart from that one game. It''s the same with the NBA, if you want to watch live NBA you either fly to America or you watch the two teams that are coming over and pick one to support for the day.

 

I''ve witnessed the love for the English Premier League throughout Africa and South East Asia first hand and I bet you if any of our teams went out there to play an official premier league match, it would sell out. Although you have to take into consideration people''s ability to afford the tickets which is obviously much tougher over there than in this country.

 

Even with the UFC it sells out regardless of who is on the card. (obviously this isn''t as territorial as your clubs playing games elsewhere just an example of "commercial draw" for the sport not the people taking part.

 

As an advocate of the NFL, NBA, and UFC coming over here and enabling me to watch a live game/fight (if I choose to) I find it difficult to say I wouldn''t want the Premier League to do the same for other countries. I just wouldn''t want it to be an extra game added on just for the two teams that played it.

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[quote user="Who Let The Fox Out "][quote user="Bethnal Yellow and Green"]

The 39th game is a stupid idea, and was never serious, it was proposed as a red herring to show people how bad things could be and that they should be pleased with what we already have. The only thing I can imagine happing is something similar to the NFL when a regular game within the season is played somewhere else to "spread the love" although this is still very slim. The only clubs interested in doing so would be those with a smaller profile and they wouldn''t be such a commercial draw in other countries.

[/quote]

The only two real stand outs there are the Giants and the Patriots in terms of global fans (The Dolphins in the 90s maybe) and yet you''ll find Wembley sold out every time with plenty of fans for each side because quite simply, you can''t watch the NFL live over here apart from that one game. It''s the same with the NBA, if you want to watch live NBA you either fly to America or you watch the two teams that are coming over and pick one to support for the day.

[/quote]

 

The difference in many Asian countries and Africa is they have strong competitive leagues in exsistence with strong fan bases. When the NFL comes here it is the only real chance for people to watch American Football, also the NFL games here are massively corporate affairs with over 50% of the tickets being held by companies - actual ticket sales to paying punters is low (and many of them are American ex-pats). If the Premier League was to play games in Asian (the prime territories would be India and China) I could see the appeal wearing off very quickly - the World Club Championship often struggles to sell out dispite low ticket prices and the best teams from around the world.

 

As I said before the 39th game idea was floated to be a target - to show that if the Premier League really wanted to be it could be even more greedy than it now is. It was a surprise to many of the Premier League execs to find that some club chairmen actually thought it was a good idea - but if you are a team that consistently finishes mid-table anything to liven things up will be appreciated.

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