Ched

Call yourself a fan? You'd boycott something just because the teams are trying to make money - what a joke.

The only downside i can see is the flights knackering players, but the african cup of nations is more damaging than a single match played abroad.

As to the original post, if it happens SI will include it, they aren't going to do anything until it happens IRL.

hufton

I don't like the idea, in fact I hate it. If this was to be implemented it would just show how little the decision makers in football really care about the fans. Unfortunately we don't get a vote, if we did I imagine you would hear us all screaming no from the 2011 Manchester derby in Melbourne.

Seriously though, they probably wouldn't play a game of such huge importance abroad. It would have been common sense to do it with a regular fixture rather than create new ones, but that's football for you.

If it does happen (which I actually can see as we have so many foreign owners and so much greed) then I don't suppose it would be too difficult for SI to put it in the game.

Ched

They are business men, they own clubs in order to make money, you don't do your job for free, so they don't own a club in order to make a loss.

The lack of common sense on these forums is truly astounding.

Kain

I think its unfair that Derby get a say on this proposal anyway.

Chas (Psyatika)

^ yeah...i doubt severely they would move something like the Manchester Derby abroad.

I'm thinking they're looking at matches that go
[small club] v. [fairly large club, located far away from the small club], with the small club designated the Home club because, frankly, they wouldn't make nearly as much by playing the match at home anyway.

This way, the big club still gets 19 home matches to earn money from, and their away disadvantage is cancelled out by the fact that both teams had to travel, and the fact that the foreign fans will probably support the bigger club.

I'm guessing matches like these would go abroad, if any:

Birmingham v. Tottenham (Korea, perhaps?)
Reading v. West Ham (USA, plenty of Americans on the Reading squad)
Derby v. ANYONE (seriously, how else are they going to get 25,000 fans excited to watch them at a "home" fixture?)
Wigan v. Portsmouth (West Africa, clearly!)

nelsonmcjones

Imagine NYPD policing a derby game or Leeds v. Cardiff (a potential Prem fixture in 3 yrs. time). There would be 100 shot dead and 1500 doing 5-10 in Sing Sing... not nescesarilly a serious point but it could happen.

Chas (Psyatika)

LOL...come on now...we're not THAT bad!

American stadia don't even separate the away fans from the home fans...that's how wimpy American "hooliganism" is!

Amaroq

Wow, there's a lot of ridiculous stuff getting thrown around in this thread.

First, the proposal was to add a 39th game, so its not like it would be "costing" any team a home match.

Likewise, about derbies, the Manchester derby, for example, would still be guaranteed to have one match at each Manchester venue, and you'd still have 19 home ties for each club.

There could be a third installment of it overseas, but that would be the same random lottery as any Cup draw might have thrown up.

As far as boycott threats, why?

The NFL and NHL are both beginning to play some of their league matches outside of the U.S., and that hasn't resulted in a major backlash from American fans - who I'd always thought of as more isolationist than Britons!

In fact, I would suggest that that "encroachment" into football's territory is a big part of what prompted this proposal.

I would love, absolutely love to see football make more inroads here in the U.S., and I think this might just be the ticket - pun intended - to stir up some interest.

Amaroq

Uh... we separated home and away fans for the U.S.-Mexico "friendly" last night.

Amaroq

I think a more interesting question to ask about this problem is, how will the local associations respond?

I doubt any league would be "in favor" of the EPL scheduling matches within their territorial integrity during their league season.

Do you think a minor federation like, say, South Korea, really wants to let the EPL compete for their fans' dollar? AND, if the local F.A. objects, would FIFA sanction such an event?

Money, of course, makes the world go 'round, so presumably you could buy the cooperation of the local F.A., at least in some countries, but now you're eating into the potential profit margin.

MLS, of course, has a pretty window from November through March in which a club could schedule a tie here without infringing - but the American football season is probably tying up most of the best stadiums from August until mid-January, and competing with the NFL playoffs in late January, or with March Madness (NCAA basketball tournament) in March is probably also unlikely - which puts your only "realistic" date in February.

Are the big EPL teams going to be so keen on playing an overseas match just as the UEFA Cup / Champions League knockout stages begin?