All aboard the Premier League roadshow? (From Hampshire Chronicle)

All aboard the Premier League roadshow?

9:36am Friday 8th February 2008

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Anyone who thought English football could not possibly move any further away from its working class roots can think again.

Not content with allowing all manner of foreign businessmen to take control of its leading clubs the Premier League now reveal they want to transport their money-making mountain to foreign shores.

They want to shoehorn an extra international round of Premier League matches from January 2011 into an already congested season to be played in cities around the world.

Roll up, roll up. The Premier League on tour, you might say.

The chances are the top clubs would not play each other, of course. Oh no, they would never agree to the possibility of taking points off each other in the title race for a match which is all about putting more easy millions in bank accounts and nothing about looking after the genuine supporter.

Do not be fooled.

This is not some pioneering initiative such as the one which saw Matt Busby take Manchester United into Europe in the 1950s and which has such poignant resonance this week.

It is a brazen plan by a league whose greed knows no bounds to get more snouts in the trough. To cash in on the burgeoning attraction of a league which is watched with fascination across the continents, which drives so much of the gambling fever in the Far East and which is rapidly becoming England's most sought-after export.

But ask yourself. What will playing in America do for the average Joe who finds it hard enough to take his 2.1 kids from Sunderland to London for a lunchtime kick-off?

How will playing in Sydney, Beijing or Dubai or other glamorous venues nurture the fan base of Wigan, Bolton, Blackburn or Fulham?

The fact is the top echelon of English football no longer cares about real fans. It has not done so for years. It tolerates them so long as they pay through the nose for a seat. Now they might need a long-haul airline seat as well if they want to watch all their club's matches.

It is television, with its access to global billions, which brings in the real cash and which is really the driver behind this new direction.

American sports, it's true, have already experimented with the idea. An American Football NFL match was played at Wembley last October and an NHL ice hockey game was staged at London's O2 Arena.

Basketball's NBA has also played a pre-season game in London.

But those sports, with their salary caps and draft systems, are not tribal by nature. They do not possess the same travelling fan base as English football. Many clubs are run as franchises and are not positioned at the integral core of the community.

It is why the Premier League play a dangerous game.

There is no surer way of alienating your true support than to place several thousand miles between players and real fans.

No surer way to dilute a product than to manufacture yet more congestion on top of two domestic cups, the world's most frantic league and European competitions to boot.

Yes, it might benefit the Glazers and the Abramoviches in particular but only by stampeding over more than a century of history and tradition.

Yet do you know what was worst of all - even worse than Sky television's predictable attempts to pass it off as an exciting idea? It was the musings of Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore.

He argued: ''We are a better competition for being a cosmopolitan league and have benefited from our increased international reach.

''Nonetheless, it is critical we retain our English character by improving our efforts to produce home grown talent, deepening our commitment to community engagement and continuing our investment in the grass roots.'' Scudamore's idea of protecting the grass roots is to rip the ground from underneath them?

The Premier League clearly believe their product has no saturation point. So they propose to treat their most loyal customers with contempt.

It is a national disgrace.

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