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Everyone has been piling in during the past week to condemn the Premiership's plan to play one extra game abroad each season. Mohamed bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation - where some of the most lucrative markets are located - opposed the idea, saying that if the principle was accepted the Premiership would have to accept reciprocal arrangements in Britain. Fifa president Sepp Blatter then made it clear that the plan would not be implemented while he is in office (which is likely to be a long time). His warning that it would damage England's standing with Fifa worried a government already uneasy about the plan as they saw a threat to England's chances of staging the world cup in 2018. Liverpool's manager, Rafael Benitez, and their chief executive, Rick Parry, voiced their concerns making it clear that Premiership clubs were not unanimous despite the support of prominent figures like Arsene Wenger and Avrim Grant. The Football Association was suspiciously slow in making any response, but emboldened by Blatter's comments, expressed 'serious reservations' about the idea.
The whole matter has been badly mishandled by the Premiership. Many clubs thought that they had just voted for an examination of the idea, but the way in which chief executive Richard Scudamore represented it suggested that they were already backing the proposal. It was evident that little had been done to prepare the ground with bodies like Fifa. Scudamore is digging in his heels to defend the plan and is urgently seeking a meeting with Blatter, but it is too late for a charm offensive. This particular scheme is dead in the water, but it does not mean that the idea is. Ironically, Blatter's intervention does ease one of the concerns of the Premiership, that the Italian, Spanish or German league might steal a march on them by embarking on such a scheme, threatening their television revenues.
Critics of the scheme say that it is all about money and brand protection and no doubt these are the main drivers. Critics represent this as 'greed'. However, it could be argued that we live in a market economy; that football is a business; and that rational businesses profit maximise otherwise, in the long run, they fail. The alternative view, adhered to by many fans, is that football is a community activity and, ideally, clubs should be owned as mutual enterprises by the fans. There is an intermediate view which accepts that football is a business, but one with very special characteristics, that needs to pay attention to its stakeholder groups, which include the government, the international authorities and the fans themselves.
A modified version of this scheme may well come back at some point. After all, the comments of the Asian Federation notwithstanding, at least two key territories - Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates - have expressed interest. Securing overseas markets remain vital to the business strategies of leading clubs. An analysis by the Fink Tank at The Times shows that a 39th game would on average make little competitive difference to league clubs. Admittedly, there is a higher chance of clubs lower down the table being affected than the big four, but the financial gains for them would be greater. When the fuss has died down, the idea may be quietly revived in a different format, e.g., any two clubs could mutually agree to play one game abroad if they wanted to.
Playing Abroad And Baseball – 18/2/08
Our Japanese correspondent, Ko Nomura, provides an interesting footnote to the controversy about Premiership clubs playing abroad. He comments that sometimes American major league baseball teams play their opening games in Japan. He recalls that this happened in 2000 and 2004 and this year the Boston Redsox and Oakland Athletics are coming. Some managers of Japanese professional baseball teams are against it, but there does not seem to be significant opposition. It seems that this is partly because there are many Japanese players who now play in the US (including Boston). Of course, apart from Japan, baseball is a game largely confined to North America (or Caribbean countries like the Dominican Republic where young boys dream of becoming a baseball star). Football is a global game and has made headway almost everywhere, gaining ground in countries where it was previously not that popular such as Australia and Ireland. The two countries in which it has been most difficult to make commercial headway are probably Japan and the United States.
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