Barclays Premiership
LONDON – The chief executive of the Premier League insisted Wednesday that England’s top 20 clubs still want to look into playing overseas matches despite hostility toward the plan.
Richard Scudamore denied that criticism of last week’s announcement that the organization would examine proposals to expand the regular season by 10 overseas games from 2010-11 had led some elite clubs to reconsider their position.
Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger and various fan groups have voiced strong opposition to the "international round," which would be in addition to the traditional 38 home-and-away matches each of the clubs currently play.
"We still have the support of the 20 clubs to investigate and look at the proposal and bring it back," Scudamore said. "The media have tried to make up some idea that people are breaking ranks, but everyone is in the same position.
"They want to know answers to some questions. They want to think through some of the implications for the competition. They want to know whether the whole thing stacks up and that’s exactly where we are, so the clubs are solid."
UEFA president Michel Platini has described the proposal as "absurd," while the Asian confederation and Australian federation have also stated their opposition.
The widespread disapproval would appear to hamper the plans to play matches at five venues around the world over a single weekend in January 2011.
Each city would host one game on Saturday and one on Sunday.
But Scudamore still wants to examine the possibility of following the top American leagues, which have staged football, basketball, hockey and baseball games outside of the United States.
The NFL held its first regular season game outside North America in London last October when the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins 13-10, the same month the Boston Celtics and the Minnesota Timberwolves played a pre-season NBA game there.
"We had a good meeting yesterday at the professional game board of the Football Association where we explained some more details to our Football League and FA colleagues," Scudamore said.
"Because it’s the start of the consultation process, our professional game colleagues … were enthusiastic and could see the merits in the proposal, but like all of us need a lot more work to be done."
Source: Premiership still into overseas matches
