Friday 8 February 2008

the premiership have announced that they

want to play games abroad as of 2011. Ostensibly to build the premiership brand, and make yet more money hand over fist as glamour starved Malaysians or Philipinos hand over three months wages to watch Man U hammer already relegated Derby. Or for gullible Japanese stump up the cash for a meaningless mid-table encounter.

What I object to is not the blatant profiteering of it all. I am long accustomed to that. and the proposition of seeing Everton-Bolton in Tokyo, for example, is a somewhat beguiling (although somewhat exclusively priced for 'normal' fans). What I object to is the unfairness of it all. The beauty of a league system, and the reason for its dominance and longevity, is the symmetry of its system in an otherwise daft and unpredictable world. All teams play each other an equal number of times home and away therefore ergo sum one team's final position in the league is a rational explanation and indication of the team's ability. To start fucking with that and introducing 'one game at random to be played anywhere in the world with the top 5 seeded to stop them meeting each other' is to shift the odds seriously in the favour of the house. The symmetry is broken, the system is lopsided, the rational equality of the league has been upset in the name of profit. And hyperbole like that.

Clearly this game abroad idea is a very silly one, and clearly the fans are going to hate it, especially the ones who will have to pay up thousands in order to maintain their proud record of seeing every league game, but the premiership will do what it likes and we will get used to it and come around in time. Marketing and weariness will see to that. Football is like parliamentary politics in that respect. Last game of the year in Kiev it is then, with Newcastle supported by the Tartar toon Army.

Meanwhile- fancy watching Arsenal in Tirana? The whores are 'plentiful, cheap, and desperate' (Lonely Planet Albania 2004).

Arsenal Albania was formed in February 2005. Arsenal is a very popular team now in Albania and every day more people are joining our supporters club and becoming regular members. Arsenal fans are welcome to contact us for more details.
Contact Names: Bledar Leshica (Chairman)
Martin Morina (Secretary)
Redi Coha (Treasury)
E-mail: arsenal_albania@yahoo.comContact number: 00 355 692 667 618

1 comment:

Jason said...

Play all of the games abroad, it has been a circus since Sky took control anyway.

Also, they are going to 'seed' these fixtures and keep the big guns apart. Fine, but that means some city has to bid to host Wigan vs Fulham or some such drab fair. It might not be such a good idea to show the league-within-a-league to the foreign peasantry.