Here we are again then at the third time of asking for our home fixture against Nottingham Forest after the first game, that should have been live on SKY on a Sunday afternoon, was called off due to international call-ups for the Tricky Trees and the second match was postponed due to a frozen pitch. The cancellation of the televised game in November came soon enough for the programme deadline but I remember doing my article for the scheduled match last month on the "game 39" issue. And this is where I have to start off by making an admission, in that I was pretty sure that the plans for Premier League matches taking places overseas would get the green light. Six weeks on from the breaking news though and the whole idea seems to pretty much dead in the water thanks to universal opposition from all quarters of the football world, including FIFA president Sepp Blatter who amazingly seems to have got something right for once. 'It allows us to grasp the globalisation nettle, which we cannot ignore. It is my duty not to ignore it. I would be criticised wholly if we let the league stray into the slow lane while others passed us in the fast lane. We have to do something. It is a strategic play.' Were the rather quaint words of Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore in an interview with BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme when the story broke out. That kind of corporate football blah speak has, somewhat unsurprisingly, alienated your average football fan in this country, with the Football Supporters' Federation particularly vehement in their opposition to the scheme. The organisation actually launching a campaign, in association with the Daily Mail, called "NO TO GAM£ 39", which, at the time of writing, has a 14,126 strong petition going on their website as they try to ensure that the Premier League plans go nowhere. Outside the top four clubs, as I coincidentally write this on Super Duper Mega Slam Grand Slam Wham Bham Slam Sunday, you have to wonder just how much support there actually is for other Premier League clubs across the globe. There might be a bit more interest in ex-pat places like Australia but you can hardly imagine the people of Thailand busting a gut to pay what could be a month's wages to buy a ticket for Bolton v Wigan. But that's just it isn't it really, clubs in the Premier League have never given a toss about stealing fans from teams in far-flung countries, hence all these horrendous pre-season competitions in Thailand and the like. Near the end of January Manchester United netted a reported £1 million for playing a friendly in Saudi Arabia against Riyadh-based club Al-Hilal, the Red Devils presumably complaining against player burnout and having too many matches to play as they pranced about in the Middle Eastern heat. And that's where a lot of the problem lies with the money Manchester United can earn for playing just one friendly. Who will finish in the Mega Grand Slam top four this season?, and then who will finish in the Super Duper Duper top four next season? The Premier League is beginning to eat itself to a degree as Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool get richer and richer thanks to the vast amounts of money they earn from the Champions (sic) League, and the global marketing deals they pick up because of it. Infact the figures for the Premiership, as it was then called in 2005-06, reveal that the division total for turnover generated was £1.4 billion. Breaking that down though and Manchester United turned over £167.7m, Chelsea £152.8m, Arsenal £133m and Liverpool £121.6m. Which left the 16 other clubs in that season with a combined turnover of £825m compared to the £575m generated solely by the big four. Still, as long as Ashley Cole and his pals get their £60,000 a week then that's all that matters, as let's be honest, I'm sure that we'd all be in tears if they ended up down to their last five cars. And that's what it all boils down to really, if we're to continue to keep paying these players obscene amounts of money then the cash has to come from somewhere. How long we can continue like this is anyone's guess, especially as a different club at our end of the football pyramid seems to be going into administration every week. We've been saying for years that there needs to be a fairer distribution of money throughout the game, and those calls have long been ignored. It's now getting to the stage though where it must happen or a lot more clubs in the Football League are going to find making ends meet a big problem. |