The Premier League must not come to Australia

When we first heard about this idea we were over the moon. Manchester United V Arsenal at Telstra Stadium in front of 80,000 people is a mouth watering prospect, however, this should not, and will not ever happen. The negatives far outweigh the positives.

First up, why are we playing a 39th game in this bloody packed calendar anyway? Are the players begging to be jet lagged and play another day when they are already working overtime?

Next thing is, how on earth are they going to figure out who plays who in this 39th game? 38 games means each team plays each other twice, once home and once away, so this ‘international round’ means one team will play another one more time. How is this fair? How do they determine this ‘third’ ‘home and away’ fixture? Why does one team have to play Manchester United (for example) three times in the season whereas a fellow struggling team, only has to play them twice and hence be at an advantage (assuming Manchester United is still a good team in 2011).

The cities which will potentially host these games will watch their local leagues take a back seat to the Premier League. January is usually peak season, especially in the Asian leagues where most of the proposed cities are going to be. Their local leagues will suffer because the big boys will come to town and beat them up with their publicity.

The thing that concerns me the most on top of what I’ve already said is that Australia is not going to get a good match anyway. If this ambitious plan goes through, then surely China and the USA will host games with Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. Australia will be left with the leftovers for example, a match between Bolton and Reading. This match would probably sell out anyway, but is it really worth it? I mean come on, for once I can confidently say I’d rather see Sydney FC playing Melbourne Victory instead, because I know the standard of that game will be just as bad as the Bolton V Reading game. The Premier League maybe the biggest league in the world, but the majority of people only care about the so called ‘Big 4′, and a minority would care about the likes of Newcastle, Everton, Tottenham and West Ham. There is very little interest otherwise.

Don’t get me wrong, if there was a Premier League match in Australia I’d be the first to get tickets, but I don’t want to see two teams playing that are about to be relegated, nor do I want to see the Australian game suffer because of it. The bigger clubs should focus on having pre-season tours in Asia and the US. I dream of Man United/Chelsea or Liverpool coming down to Sydney one day to play Sydney FC. Sydney FC V Arsenal would be the ultimate dream. The big Premier League clubs should stick to pre season tours, as, in this way, we can all have our cake and eat it too.