OLIVER HOLT: Don’t sacrifice the unique appeal of English football on the altar of greed playing matches abroad… homogeneity in the sport must be resisted at all costs

The new Premier League season starts a week from Friday. Burnley will play against Manchester City at Turf Moor as Turf Moor is Burnley’s home ground. We assume that will be the location, but we won’t be able to take it for granted for much longer. The power of money tells us that.

Change is coming. We can all feel it. A tipping point is approaching. In recent weeks, England’s top clubs have once again flown around the world on their lucrative summer tours, as they have for some time now to target their markets in the Far East, Australia and the US.

They are missionaries for football and for profit and they pursue their mission with unusual zeal, even though Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund played to a half-empty stadium in Las Vegas and Spurs’ game against Leicester in Bangkok was canceled because it rained even harder then in Manchester at the end of the Fourth Test.

However, most matches seem to have been great successes, greeted by frenzied crowds. And the more happy faces we see in Washington and Seoul and San Diego and Tokyo and Orlando and Singapore, the more we’re told that what these markets really want is a competitive Premier League game.

It’s been 15 years since the Premier League considered hosting a ’39th Game’, a round of so-called ‘international matches’ that would have been part of the regular league season and would count towards the final standings as much as any other contest would.

It’s been 15 years since the cowardly proposal to play a 39th Premier League game abroad

It was a horrible idea, born of cowardice. The petitioners didn’t quite have the guts to include games abroad in a 38-game season for fear of the outrage it would cause, but the extra game would have distorted the idea that each team would play the other side twice and would have turned it into a Frankenstein’s monster. of a league.

Of course, it was also an idea born out of greed, an idea born out of a desire to plunder emerging markets. People called it The Anything Goes League and the Greed is Good League and the way the Premier League has embraced state ownership of clubs in recent years shows that not much has changed.

Except that clubs have become bolder in their greed. They showed that with Project Big Picture and they showed it with the attempt of six of them to join a European Super League that would have destroyed the rest of the pyramid and they showed it with their bitter defiance against the idea of ​​an independent regulator.

Next time they strike, they won’t care about the artifices of a 39th game. They will simply record a round abroad in the regular season. The narrative that fans living abroad ‘deserve’ to see a competitive match in their home country is gaining ground.

And with each passing week, we discover that if the Saudi state wants a new sports toy, it buys it. You may have faith in the Premier League to withstand it if it goes after hosting regular season games in the Kingdom and bidding billions for the privilege. But not me.

Italy has hosted its Super Cup in Saudi Arabia since 2018, and Spain has struck a deal with the Saudis to host its equivalent there until 2029. The Premier League’s interest in acquiring the international broadcasting rights for the FA Cup is seen by many as a prelude to exporting FA Cup ties abroad.

But playing English competitive domestic matches abroad was a terrible idea 15 years ago and it is a terrible idea now. And the narrative that fans in foreign markets are somehow denied their birthright to watch Premier League games in Singapore or Seattle remains deeply flawed.

The narrative that fans living abroad ‘earn’ a match in their home country is gaining ground (pictured – Arsenal beat Barcelona 5-3 in Los Angeles last week)

However, this is an argument that remains deeply flawed as it would deprive the majority of a given club’s fans of the chance to see their team live.

Part of the reason it’s flawed is that it would deprive the majority of a given club’s fans of the chance to see their team live. That was the main reason why the 39th game idea was so vitriolally received by fans in 2008 and it would be the same now.

But there’s a vaguely neo-colonialistic and deeply dishonest air to the idea that we should export our teams to these drooling new markets because it’s somehow for their good, that we’re providing a public service and that it has absolutely nothing to do with it. with the enormous profits that can be made.

Certainly much better for the health of the global game if other countries build their own leagues. Fans in the United States should give all their support to their local MLS teams and support their teams. It’s already a good competition, with Lionel Messi playing eight months after he won the World Cup with Argentina.

It is the same in other emerging football areas. I have no fondness for the Saudi Arabian regime and it’s a travesty that it was allowed to buy Newcastle United, but it has an established football culture and invests billions of pounds in its own league.

Football is about its players and its managers and its fans, but just as much as any of those things, it’s about a sense of place. It is about the different football cultures that exist on every field and in every town or city.

It is much better for the health of the game if countries build their own leagues. In the US, the MLS is already strong and now Lionel Messi is playing in it shortly after winning the World Cup

Italy and Spain are already playing their respective Super Cups in Saudi Arabia and it feels like England’s games abroad are only a matter of time (Photo – Spanish Super Cup Final)

That is what makes English football so special. And Spanish football. And German football. And French football. And the MLS. And the Saudi Pro League. And the Primera Division of Argentina. And so forth. Because they are different. Because they are distinctive. Because they have their own identity.

Part of the reason English football is so admired, part of the reason it is so attractive, part of the reason foreign broadcasters are willing to pay so much for it, is because of its traditions and individuality. We can’t throw that away.

Too many clubs lose contact with the supporters anyway. Too many are designed to serve business masters, but playing competitive games abroad would make that even worse. The urge for homogeneity in football must be countered at all costs.

The 39th game was laughed out of town in 2008. If the Premier League tries to take it a step further, which it will soon, English football needs to be ready.

A summer full of memorable Ashes moments

It’s been an enchanted summer for The Ashes.

It’s hard to pick highlights, but here are ten: Joe Root’s reverse ramp shot at Edgbaston, Ben Stokes’ amazing 155 in England’s second innings at Lord’s, Australian journalists asking for a ‘Bazball horn’ to be sounded at their English colleagues in the press box to warn them in advance of the chaos ensuing, Alex Carey’s ‘stumping’ of Jonny Bairstow at Lord’s, breakfast with Bumble at the Ugly Mugs cafe outside Headingley, the view from the Corinthian Roof Terrace at The Oval, the Australian team taking up the gauntlet in the Long Room, Zak Crawley’s cover drive for four at Edgbaston from the first ball of the series, Stuart Broad’s six at The Oval, the last shot of his career, and Jonny Bairstow’s 99 not out at Old Trafford .

Joe Root’s reverse slope at Edgbaston was one of many memorable moments in the Ashes

Man United must bet on Hojlund

There have been some suggestions that Manchester United are overpaying Atalanta for highly rated but inexperienced £72m Denmark striker Rasmus Hojlund, and perhaps they are.

The truth is that United are still in a situation where they have to take risks with players like the striker.

The best players are more likely to choose Manchester City, Arsenal and probably Liverpool for a move to Old Trafford as they offer better prospects of winning the top trophies. United therefore has to buy smarter. And sometimes they have to gamble.

Man United may overpay for Rasmus Hojlund, but they have to take risks with players

Man City dominate again and Pochettino will breathe new life into Chelsea

I’m notoriously bad at predictions, as fans of Sergio Aguero and Charlie Adam will know, but with less than two weeks left until the start of the Premier League season, here are a few you can ignore: Aston Villa finish top 6 and pressing for a Champions League place, Chelsea to recover from last season with a top four finish and a run for the title and Manchester City to win it, and the Champions League. Again.

Mauricio Pochettino has what it takes to revive Chelsea and lead them to a title challenge