See Manchester United in New York! The Premier League's right to take on the world

absolutely.....we have the product lets get it out there... apart from serie a and la liga the rest of europe are basically feeder leagues for the epl already...arguably its more difficult to win the premier than the cl, partcularly as platini got his way to give the champions of andorra a straight bye to the final or so it seems... this is about getting the money and getting the best...in any case 10 live matches over one weekend in the pub... jippee....mine is a large one

"the driving force behind organised sport ever since man first tied a piece of cowhide together and gave it a kick. Fact." Er. No. It's a mere assertion, it's your ill-informed opinion. The driving force behind the various Greek games was religion. The driving force behind the medieval precusrsors to rugby football et al was honour and pride. "It's a global game and a global marketplace, and the highest level of English football is a global brand so playing league matches overseas is only natural." Your conclusion does not follow at all. This is merely opinion again. "It's not only logical, but also necessary." Neither internally or externally is it logical or necessary; again, your opinion. "Playing regular season games is the next logical step." Er, again with the "logical"? Football is sui generis, it is not merely another "product." The rest of your economic analysis is straight from a high-skrewel text-book. "formidable globalisation policies" is not a word, it's a phrase, and one whose

...and one whose meaning is less than evident. "American sports have been holding (real) games outside their home markets for years." Define "home markets." Which sports? Since when? How many games? Try again. Be precise. Let's assume I think it's a good idea, and as yet, I'm still open-minded. The FIRST issue that comes to my mind is the simple one of matching teams. Enough has been said about this by others. It is NOT a good start. There is another matter that no one (yet) has considered. An issue so obvious, so vast, it's no wonder it's gone right over everyone's head. The issue? Weather and the proposed timing of these games. [hang on, I'll be right back, give me 10 mins and I'll explain]

Right. Let's take Boston, Massachusetts for example. Massachusetts gets most of it's snowfall in January and February. It can be brutal. We're also talking ice-storms and nor'easters, a very unpleasant thing to go through. It is bitterly cold, and if the wind gets up, NO ONE goes outside unless life or death. New York is better, but not by that much. Boston is a prime candidate for a game or two, prime candidate. Lets say four teams go over for two games at Foxboro over two days. In an ordinary winter, it's going to be rough. You get a storm coming through just before or whilst they are there...matches postponed. When are they going to be played then?

Take another proposed candidate, Sydney, NSW, Australia, or Singapore...in January??? That's high summer. Do you have any idea how hot how humid, how high the dew-point is (dew point is the real killer). Just keep thinking about the weather in the various possible places around the world...it's a problem. The weather is either going to stop games dead, or, will lead to such lacklustre games it'll do little else but undermine the entire purpose of the operation. No time to get used to the weather...just thwon into 95 degrees plus of heat and humidity, or teperatures so cold (especially if the wind comes up it'll freeze your eyeballs).

Let's think about logistics, flying time, recovery time, flying back time, double recovery time. Getting these fellas ready for the NEXT 90 minutes at home is going to be a hell of a job. Have any of you flown to the US? Hong-Kong? Sydney? Try it. The dehyrdation is incredible and sleep....the worst kind if any. Play 90 minutes in extreme cold or extreme heat and humidity. Fly back. Play again, almost right away. Each of these 90 minute games is going to take DAYS to do. And do you think fans at home are going to tolerate rolling the dice on fitness and energy levels when they get back just so a few foreign and ex-pat bums can get on seats? You can roll the dice on some places where the weather is dodgy, but the safe thing is to go to places (north and southern hemisphere) where it's safe at that time of the year. That means the same places year in year out, and these places might not be first order candidates except for the weather issue.

I know some folks are complaining that fans aren't going to be able to afford to "go away." Lads, you were never meant to. Airfares, hotel rooms, days off work. Perhaps some will want to make a holiday of it. Every year? You want to pay to fly to Oz to watch 90 minutes of exhibition football on a rigged fixture list which will be patently and unavoidably unfair for all the world (a world your trying to impress) to see? Thing is, it's not as though the rest of the world don't know what this is about. Putting their bums on couches in front of the TV and buying shirts. I think this should be looked at, sure, but on it's face, there are so many problems I think it was a mistake to release the possibility of this without a long and considered analysis.

What the hell is the need to physically travel to the back of beyond? Sattelite has made the PL huge.The players already play too many games and this is the thin edge of the wedge resulting in 3 4 or 5 games abroad.This will cause the teams involved to increase their pools to 40-50 or even 60.I can see in time the game being for commercial reasons broken into 4 sctions for the HUGE american market.I see kickers being brought on only for free kicks.I see cheerleaders at halftime ok ok one benefit but as Scudamore has claimed this drive to dominate the world is driven by MONEY so my claims are not over the top but merley a logical result in a global finance field of war.The casualties like all wars will be in the weak and the weakest part of this great sport is THE FAN you are just a number in the money mens control of your sport.

Why fly thousands of miles and endanger the players health by exposing them to all sorts of viruses and extreme temprature fluctuations?There is no need to travel abroad we are a great product and we the fans have made it a great product.We will ultimately lose out here and the money little men will win,profiting from our years of support.How disappointed will some countries be when Newcastle v Derby is in their backyard? and I can assure yous that the games played in America will be fixed everytime to make sure a top 4 team plays their.This will create BAD feeling in the rest of the league.Bolton v Boro will always be in Kazakstan.

Yesa Ia theenk that it is a baad eef we a get the rubbish teems here.I theenk that ifa we get a rubbish teams then we wila kadnipp them and demand thata Chelasea and the great Manchesssster u nited come to the great hero nation of forwarding success and make super land of beloved Kazzzzakkkstaaaan!

Take this to its commercial extereme.The plan goes ahead and is a huge and i mean huge success.50yrs down the line soccer rules american sport and remember the money men control the sport,I forsee Arsenal for example being for financial intrests being uprooted and relocated to Boston or Los Angeles.Hey thats how it goes in america,clubs are constantly relocated.The fan remember does'nt come into this whole equation and never will.A football fan is not regarded as intelligent and so can be easily manipulated,trust me on that.The headline in 2045 Today Liverpools trillionaire owners have decided to relocate to Las Vegas, the 200,000 Liverpool fans are angry at the decision but the Quilyazillyanaire owner says I don't give a damn we have 800,000 fans over there so I'm moving,its purely a business desision,I'm sorry if the City of Liverpool is upset but I'm not breaking any rules...maybe only a few hearts" he added broken hearts don't make any money. This is not a fantasy but a possible reality given how the fi

apart from the points that Katya's Friend so elloquently put across, this will cause the death of national league football across the globe. it's already started with the exposure of the premiership leading to a lack of interest and investment from both fans and companies in teams and leagues outwith the premiership, and not just smaller nations like holland, scotland, portugal and such like but the financial gap between the top clubs in england and the top clubs in germany, italy, france and now even spain is struggling to close the gap in revenue generated by the prem. now some non thinkers might think this is good in their tiny nationalistic minds but it will lead to the death of the national game and the professional game in other less populous nations leagues causing a footballing hegemony by "english"(by this time they will be english in name only) teams which would totally change football as we know it. this is all being driven by the greed of the powerful business men who run our game and has already

Soccer will never be crazy popular in America. Beckham proved this by coming to America - and nobody cares. http://www.soccershop.com