EPL Talk » 39th game

Poll: Do You Want Premier League Matches Played Overseas?

The Gaffer — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:12:31 +0000

This week, some of the top decision makers in world football met at the Leaders In Football conference at Stamford Bridge in London to discuss a host of topics. Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, spoke about his vision for making the Premier League into a global league.

When interviewed about the topic, Scudamore remarked, “The audience abroad are not silly. They are very sophisticated, they know a lot about our clubs and they want real and meaningful matches.” Is that true? Do you want Premier League matches played overseas? Vote now.

Premier League 2.0: Turning The 39th Game Concept Into A Winner

The Gaffer — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:00:55 +0000

England can no longer lay claim to the Premier League. Instead it’s now the world’s game. In fact, the Premier League should contemplate changing its name to the World Premier League, which would more accurately describe its global appeal.

Before you report me to the loony bin, consider the fact that there are far more followers of the Premier League overseas than in England. Plus fans overseas have more football fever that most Englishmen. Imagine if Brits had to wake up at 4:45am on a Saturday to watch a Premier League match? Sounds ridiculous, but that’s what thousands of residents on the west coast of the United States do every weekend during the season. All around the world there are foreign soccer fans watching these matches live without complaining about the time zone difference.

While “the 39th game” concept was ridiculed, it’s intent was revolutionary. Bringing the world’s most popular sports league to the masses by playing a weekend of matches around the world. The idea was dismissed by the media and fans, but when the 20 chairmen of Premier League clubs reconvene later this year, global expansion will most certainly be on the agenda.

After much thought, here are my recommendations of how the Premier League should introduce their matches to the world:

Strategize with the Football Association on how to take the Community Shield match away from Wembley and instead play it overseas. Each August, the Community Shield game could be played in a different city around the world. To convince the Football Association that they should allow the game to be played overseas, the Premier League would need to offer the FA a princely sum, which the FA would take to help pay its massive debts.
Turn the fourth Champions League spot into a playoff race. Instead of the fourth-placed team in the Premier League entering the qualifying rounds of the Champions League, the teams that finished fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh would play each other in a playoff competition whereby the winner would qualify to enter the Champions League.Taking last season as an example, Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa and Blackburn Rovers would have played each other in this tournament. The format would be similar to the successful Championship League playoffs. In the semi-finals, Liverpool would have played Blackburn (fourth versus seventh) while Everton would have played Aston Villa (fifth versus sixth place).
Following the same format as the Championship League playoffs, the semi-final matches would be played over two legs, “home” and “away.” The winners of those matches would then compete in the one leg final. In my plan, all of these playoff matches and the playoff final would be played overseas. Because there’s so much on the line for the teams, the games would be played at a very competitive level thus ensuring massive interest as well as generating large sums of additional TV revenue.

By increasing the competition for the coveted and lucrative fourth qualifying spot for the Champions League, this creates a whole new level of excitement near the end of the season. Not only would the fourth through seventh place teams have something to play for, but it would also force the teams in eighth place and lower to fight as hard as they could to climb into the seventh place spot or higher. As is often the case, many teams peter out during the end of the season with little or nothing to play for especially if they know that the Champions League and UEFA Cup places are already sown up. This solves that apathy and creates new excitement.

Putting the above plan into motion, this would mean that there would be a total of five Premier League matches played overseas in addition to the Community Shield match. This commitment to the international market would definitely elevate the league’s visibility overseas and would allow foreign fans to witness first-hand competitive matches.

Please share your thoughts about these ideas by clicking the comments link below.

How The Champions League Final Revives The Idea Of The 39th Game

The Gaffer — Sat, 24 May 2008 12:54:43 +0000

As I sat down to watch the Champions League Final this past Wednesday, the first thought that entered my mind was how the final in Moscow was a preview of what the Premier League’s global expansion could look like. Football chairmen and tycoons around the world must have wondered too how they could get their hands on even a sliver of wealth from what was the richest game in football history, which now rivals the Superbowl in sheer economic strength.

After all, if 42,000 away fans could travel 1,557 miles from England to Moscow, some of them would be willing to travel to other locations farther away to more accessible locations such as New York, Johannesburg, Miami and Dubai, to name just a few cities.

But for the football money men, the supporters of their clubs are the least of their concern. They’ll be wondering how they can package the Premier League matches in such a way to gain the support of fellow clubs so they can launch their enhanced product to cities around the world. Sure, there is much work to be done but the concept of the 39th game is far from extinct.

Chairmen from Premier League clubs will be meeting this June to discuss several topics including the 39th Game concept. The league will undoubtedly try to determine if there is a consensus in pursuing the plans to expand globally and, if so, what changes would need to be made to the business plan to make it a win-win for everyone involved.

Even chief executives of smaller Premier League clubs (in terms of net worth), such as Everton, are finding the prospect of expanding overseas mouthwatering.

Money can be a powerful weapon in the fight to change people’s minds. While the Premier League will never change the minds of the boisterous fans who are opposed to the idea of playing games overseas, Premier League Chief Executive Richard Scudamore will be listening more intently to the club chairmen, sponsors and representatives from the national soccer federations around the world that would need to give their authorization for games to be played in their host country.

The sheer growth of the Premier League worldwide in generating massive amounts of revenue from TV rights deals is a powerful drug that club chairmen of Premier League clubs will continue to swallow. The realization, of course, is that the Premier League still has massive potential to become even more popular in continents such as Asia. Increased millions of TV viewers equals more revenue from TV rights as well as more money spent by advertisers. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The secret to the success of reviving the 39th Game concept is to kill the 39th game. The phrase “39th Game” now has a negative connotation. Instead, what the Premier League needs to do is to repackage the idea, give it a new name and take the correct steps this time to make it a success.

Coming soon, in a future edition of EPL Talk, will be my ideas of how the Premier League can structure their business plan to succeed in their plans to expand their brand globally.