No to Gam£ 39

With so much press recently about the proposals to take the Premiership “abroad” for one weekend, starting in January 2011, it’s good to see that the fans are finding their voice. The Football Supporter’s Federation have even started the above campaign to highlight the general level of opposition that there is to this campaign. An online petition exists on their site (here), just following the petition link. I’d urge all football fans to go and sign it.

For me I can’t believe that the Premier League thought that this would be accepted by the fans. The people, who week-in, week-out, travel the miles and hand over their hard-earned cash to watch their teams. And this is how the league wants to repay them? By making them watch their team on the TV playing however many thousands of miles away. Ridiculous.

What then makes it worse is that the plan also states that this game will be part of the league, and will therefore have league points attached to it. To keep the league “competitive” though, the ties will be drawn at random. Well I say at random. The “big 4″ will be seeded so that they don’t meet each other! So how is that fair? And if losing one of these games by 4 goals (for example) is enough to reduce a clubs goal difference sufficiently to be relegated I can’t see their fans being appreciative of the extra game and associated income.

In an unusual show of sense, even Sepp Blatter has come out and condemned the plans. Will miracles never cease? Some countries have come out in support of the idea, but of those that have, they have pretty much universally said that this would only be if they could have a game involving one of the big 4. Somehow I can’t see many countries bidding for the rights to Sunderland vs. Middlesbrough myself…