by Simon Harding

Created on: June 04, 2008

The English Premier Leagues's 39th game World Tour was doomed to failure as English soccer fans are fed up of being taken for granted, and are not willing to fall for a gimmick that is of no benefit to them. Most English soccer fans have been priced out of the experience of going to live games because of the greed that has been brought into the game by the introduction of vast sums of television and sponsorship money. Those fans who do attend live soccer games are paying through the nose for the enjoyment of seeing live games. English soccer fans are knowledgeable and passionate about the game, what they are not is stupid, and why would they be interested in supporting the notion of a 39th game that drags their team away from their own backyard halfway across the world for the benefit of overseas fans, who surely must have their own soccer teams to watch. The airlines must have been licking their lips at the prospect of thousands of loyal English soccer fans, paying for airline tickets to see their team abroad. English soccer fans are not interested in the prospect of their team playing a pointless game, for lets face it, how can there be any dignity in teams playing another team at random three times in a season, while they are playing other teams only twice? This idea of the Premier League's 39th game scheme has obviously developed from the NFL and NBA playing exhibition games in Europe, and while it is fine for these sports that don't have a massive global appeal to reach out to the fan base they have worldwide, and perhaps pick up more fans, who don't have a comparable football or basketball experience to watch live in their own country, soccer is a different prospect. Soccer is a global phenomenon and while overseas fans may not have Manchester United or Chelsea to watch in their own country, they do have a comparable soccer experience in their own country, possibly be it at a different level of ability. If overseas fans wish to see live Premier League Soccer then would it not be more practical for this smaller number of overseas soccer fans to travel to England? Than uproute the whole Engish Premier League to a far flung foreign outpost? After all nobody wants the greatest soccer league in the world to become a mickey mouse operation, that is reduced to nothing more than a travelling circus. There was undoubtly some level of suprise that soccer authorities such as FIFA so readily dismissed the idea of the 39th game, as the soccer authorities are often fond of a bizarre new scheme or two. Perhaps the soccer authorities could sense the negative mood about the 39th game, emanating from fans, the media and those working in the game. People who are passionate about soccer such as the fans, the media and people working in the game, at a very basic level are only interesting in watching twenty two players kicking a ball around a pitch for the pure pleasure of the game. These people will not buy into money making gimmicks that only make money for business men and not soccer fans. The modern soccer game has been pulled from pillar to post, rippped to shreds and rebuilt in the shape of a money making monster that bears no resemble to the sport it started out as. Maybe the saga of the 39th game will be a defining moment in the history of soccer? When soccer lovers say "Enough is enough, we are taking our sport back". Hopefully this 39th game idea has crawled back under the stone it originated from never to be heard of again. Or perhaps to one day be recyled as a joke in a comedy club, "Heard the one about the most stupid idea in the history of English soccer?

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