In a move that closely follows America’s NFL, Italy’s and Spain’s football federations have unveiled plans to stage league fixtures in Australia and the United States this season — and they are seeking permission from Fifa and Uefa to press ahead with these plans.
If successful, La Liga clubs Barcelona and Villarreal will face each other in Miami in December in what would be the first European league fixture to be played abroad; if permission is granted, Serie A sides AC Milan and Como will meet in Perth, Australia, in February. All four sides were among the group of self-proclaimed ellite European clubs who tried to start the ill-fated Super League that was greeted with such hositility back in 2021.
Fan groups are up in arms about this, expressing their firm opposition to ongoing attempts to subvert the rules of the game by allowing leagues to relocate fixtures elsewhere around the world. Football Supporters Europe have warned: “Should either of these leagues’ proposals be allowed to go ahead, it would instantly open a Pandora’s box with unpredictable and irreversible consequences.”
The idea of the Premier League playing an extra round – the infamous ‘39th game’ – outside England was raised in 2008 but the plans were shelved after criticism from fans and the media.
Premier League chief executive Richard Masters downplayed such a scenario in August. He said: “I don’t think it changes the Premier League’s view on this at all, we don’t have any plans to play matches abroad. It’s not anywhere near my in-tray and it’s not a debate around our table.”
The understandable furious backlash in 2021 from fans towards the selfish plans for a European Super League centred around the concept of the proposed breakaway competition threatening to fly in the face of over a century of sporting integrity throughout football created by the organic pyramid system and instead manufacture a synthetic closed shop private members’ club while those not involved would be left to wither and die.
In the top flight of English football, and in all the other lower divisions of the Football League and the rest of the pyramid, it has always been the case of playing each one of your opponents at your own ground, and playing a return match at their ground. That is sacrosanct and cannot be messed around with, except for understandable logistical constraints, such as Spurs awaiting completion of their new stadium.
However, the short end of the wedge is already with us in the form of Premier League 2, which was revamped a few seasons ago. For the current season, PL2 now has 29 Category One Development teams — U21s from Premier League and Championship clubs — and operates under the so-called ‘Swiss Model’ where they each play a set number of 20 games (not 56 that would be required for normal league competition).
Fixtures are determined by having the 29 teams seeded into pots based on their historical performance in the competition over the preceding 3 years. Each team will play the others in their own pot, plus four or five teams from the other pots, either home or away. The combined league table determines play-off positions for the top 16 teams who qualify for the knockout rounds to determine the ultimate PL2 Champions.