La Liga sign 15-year deal to have games played in the US

I can see it being a really fun idea for the Premier League.

It would have to be seeded though and be additional matches rather than replacements. So two rounds of fixtures played at different times of the season, firstly 1st from the previous season plays 20th from the previous (or the Championship play off winners), 4th plays 17th etc. Then in the later round, 1st plays 2nd, 3rd plays 4th etc. You could stagger the matches over different weekends as with the winter break and you don't need to send every team to the same country. There'd be logistical problems but given modern day transport links pretty minor and surmountable ones.

It wouldn't be too hard to make space in the calendar for two extra matches; ditch all cup replays or the League Cup. People are always resistant to change but it would be a fun extra dimension imo.
 
I am shocked by the amount of posters thinking ‘well if it’s one game why would it matter?’.

Well one game would be the start. Then what next?

We have just seen the Spanish Cup played in Morocco, now it’s a La Liga game. What’s next the Spanish Cup final or El Classico?

It looks like the FA will be happy to sell Wembley, something they didn’t even pay for, so it’s likely the major finals will be moved abroad.

These clubs are making millions, too much in fact because they are wasting money on agents fees, crap players or gambling on potential.

Upsetting the core home fans is not a good idea. The club loses its soul and identity. Honestly the time is coming soon for this bubble to burst.

Football wasn’t just about making money. But it’s becoming so Americanised and I’m getting sick of it. It won’t be long until replays are sponsored by Budweiser.

They have ruined the World Cup and Euros by allowing half the world to qualify to make more money.

The Champions League has become stagnant due to a ranking system that allows the same team to make the final stages, to make more money.
 
This is a really horrible idea. And I say this as someone living in the states. And the NFL and NBA are not the best examples to follow since they decided that they do not care about the fans a long time ago. You guys complain about how working class fans are being priced out of games that happened in major American professional sports in like the 60s.
 
So you have a week to prepare for a game and then you travel to the US. You get over jet lag, then train, then a couple days later play a competitive game. You then come back to Europe, rest from the jet lag, then have to go again. Not to mention the periods when CL and cup games will need to be played, so how exactly will it work when you have to travel to the US, play a game, travel back and then prep for a midweek game in the FA cup for e.g?
 
Top flight football will completely turn into an expensive traveling circus. Only a matter of time before top clubs are being paraded around the globe in some Super League. I’ll stop following top flight football when that happens.
 
How many Americans will be arsed enough to attend a Levente-Girona or a Huesca-Getafe match in their home states?:lol: I don't think the LFP will allow El Clasico moved to the US but possibly might play the Madrid derby or Barcelona-Valencia in the MetLife or Miami to attract huge crowds.

Scudemore's underwear will be a mess if this become successful.
 
So you have a week to prepare for a game and then you travel to the US. You get over jet lag, then train, then a couple days later play a competitive game. You then come back to Europe, rest from the jet lag, then have to go again. Not to mention the periods when CL and cup games will need to be played, so how exactly will it work when you have to travel to the US, play a game, travel back and then prep for a midweek game in the FA cup for e.g?

Surely they are fit young men who should be able to play a few more fixtures a season. Their managers are always saying this is so in the media. You know this is true. :smirk:
 
I am shocked by the amount of posters thinking ‘well if it’s one game why would it matter?’.

Well one game would be the start. Then what next?

We have just seen the Spanish Cup played in Morocco, now it’s a La Liga game. What’s next the Spanish Cup final or El Classico?

It looks like the FA will be happy to sell Wembley, something they didn’t even pay for, so it’s likely the major finals will be moved abroad.

These clubs are making millions, too much in fact because they are wasting money on agents fees, crap players or gambling on potential.

Upsetting the core home fans is not a good idea. The club loses its soul and identity. Honestly the time is coming soon for this bubble to burst.

Football wasn’t just about making money. But it’s becoming so Americanised and I’m getting sick of it. It won’t be long until replays are sponsored by Budweiser.

They have ruined the World Cup and Euros by allowing half the world to qualify to make more money.

The Champions League has become stagnant due to a ranking system that allows the same team to make the final stages, to make more money.

Some kid got man off the match over here but couldn't accept it because it was sponsored by budweiser.
 
EPL revenue dwarfs that of La Liga. This is even with La Liga having the best teams in European competitions and best players. La Liga has to do something to catch up to the EPL revenue-wise or risk being a forgotten league like the Series A. Gaining more fans in the USA seems like a good strategy to me. Most people I know only watch 2 La Liga matches a year with both being Real vs Barca. Some may accidentally tune in from time to time to catch a glimpse of Messi, Ronaldo, or Iniesta. There are more people in the USA interested in Mexican Lega MX than in the EPL. It just seems like a good strategy to me for La Liga to try to crack the USA market.
 
So you have a week to prepare for a game and then you travel to the US. You get over jet lag, then train, then a couple days later play a competitive game. You then come back to Europe, rest from the jet lag, then have to go again. Not to mention the periods when CL and cup games will need to be played, so how exactly will it work when you have to travel to the US, play a game, travel back and then prep for a midweek game in the FA cup for e.g?
Play the rounds in August and January when there are no European games and/or crap the League Cup (why do we have it when we already have the FA Cup again?).

Admittedly it's not great but now La Liga have innovatively stolen the Premier League's idea we can either face it head on or fall behind. Similar scenario to the French raising the rugby salary cap.
 
While I agree that logistically its a bad idea, I am really surprised by the number of people who didn't see things going this way eventually. Clubs have been reaching out to global audiences since the turn of the century and now have majority of their fans overseas.

Yes, they may still be making more money from local fans but the idea that a football club is only confined within the geographical location of its training ground and stadium is naive in today's globalized world. Sooner or later, this was going to be a global product where overseas fans can touch and feel what they are paying for indirectly already.
 
This is an awful idea. First of all, who is the team that has to play a game less at home? How does one pick that and force that to happen? Why would their fans have a home game fewer? Suddenly it's not a domestic league any more. It's the Spanish league. Key word = Spanish. Not spanish teams playing internationally. One of the worst ideas I've ever heard in football. What the feck does America have to do with the Spanish league or premier league or anything else? All it is is them giving a lot of money to get some games. So dumb.
 
Pure nonsense. It will backfire. Can you imagine Real or Barça FORCED to fly to Miami, L.A. or D.C. to play a crucial match that could secure the League? And I guess only the TOP teams will fly over there, because who the f*ck cares about Real Sociedad vs Leganés?

The Spanish Federation should focus on Europe, South-America, Russia, Africa, Middle Orient and China/Japan anyway. Many yanks don't even know Messi.

Makes no f*cking sense.
 
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This idea is a load of shite and I'd be gutted if it ever happened with the Premier League.

Utd vs Liverpool in an actual league game played in Miami at fecking 3am or whatever? Nonsense.
 
While I agree that logistically its a bad idea, I am really surprised by the number of people who didn't see things going this way eventually. Clubs have been reaching out to global audiences since the turn of the century and now have majority of their fans overseas.

Yes, they may still be making more money from local fans but the idea that a football club is only confined within the geographical location of its training ground and stadium is naive in today's globalized world. Sooner or later, this was going to be a global product where overseas fans can touch and feel what they are paying for indirectly already.

A globalised English league?

That sentence doesn’t even make sense....
 
Because it’s completely ridiculous to expect them to refuse to ever play one of the biggest if not the biggest fixture of European football in the country of origin of both teams and this would not be accepted by the fans and any additional gain from it would be nullified.

Once in a while, maybe they will try to do that. I actually expect it to happen. Definitely not every single year forever. It would actually probably make it less interesting for fans worldwide and would decrease the profit if you knew you would never see Barca v Real at Camp Nou and Bernabeu ever again. If they are looking to make more money it’s a ridiculous thing to do.

you mean like increasing the price of sky sports every year to the point most people struggle to afford it? Then split it off with BT and now with Eleven sports as well so that its even more expensive? Yet it still makes a profit, and the league has move around fixtures to accommodate broadcasters at the expense of match going fans. It Doesnt matter what you do, like booze, fags and petrol, football is hard to stop. Just ask any City fan who's club has been taken over by royal thug if theyll stop supporting the team prompt up by a state that abuses human rights. They dont care. They only care that they are winning.

We will just have to agree to disagree on this one Im afraid. I see no redeeming qualities in the current footballing bodies that tells me they wont abuse this if they can. Just my opinion.
 
"If we play a game (380 per season) in another country, we will go hand in hand with the clubs, their fans and the institutions. LaLiga delights millions of fans around the world: Let´s build bridges and grow by transmitting the values of football and our country." He also said "if NBA and NFL do it, we can do it too"
 
Absolutely horrific news. If the Premier League (when the Premier League) start doing the same it really is going to be a sorry state of affairs.
 
So you have a week to prepare for a game and then you travel to the US. You get over jet lag, then train, then a couple days later play a competitive game. You then come back to Europe, rest from the jet lag, then have to go again. Not to mention the periods when CL and cup games will need to be played, so how exactly will it work when you have to travel to the US, play a game, travel back and then prep for a midweek game in the FA cup for e.g?
You play the game in a week without midweek games obviously. There is literally a Canadian rugby team who plays in an England league and fly back and forth several times in the season. Having to take a plane ride isn't the issue here.
 
"If we play a game (380 per season) in another country, we will go hand in hand with the clubs, their fans and the institutions. LaLiga delights millions of fans around the world: Let´s build bridges and grow by transmitting the values of football and our country." He also said "if NBA and NFL do it, we can do it too"

Self serving suit. Which club wants to be the one with the disadvantage?
 
you mean like increasing the price of sky sports every year to the point most people struggle to afford it? Then split it off with BT and now with Eleven sports as well so that its even more expensive? Yet it still makes a profit, and the league has move around fixtures to accommodate broadcasters at the expense of match going fans. It Doesnt matter what you do, like booze, fags and petrol, football is hard to stop. Just ask any City fan who's club has been taken over by royal thug if theyll stop supporting the team prompt up by a state that abuses human rights. They dont care. They only care that they are winning.

We will just have to agree to disagree on this one Im afraid. I see no redeeming qualities in the current footballing bodies that tells me they wont abuse this if they can. Just my opinion.

Increasing the prices is not equivalent of deciding to hold every single big game outside of the country, forever.
 
Which teams would lose their home advantage for these games in another country and how would it be fair? Also it is a English league with English teams which have a home city or town they have played at for over a hundred years in most cases. It would be the end of our league as we know it. Awful idea.
 
Which teams would lose their home advantage for these games in another country and how would it be fair? Also it is a English league with English teams which have a home city or town they have played at for over a hundred years in most cases. It would be the end of our league as we know it. Awful idea.

Likely either pay off the relegation fodder to sacrifice a home game vs either Real or Barca, or give Real and Barca a shit ton of money to play a "home" game against one of the relegation fodder there. Either way, I imagine it'll be Real and Madrid vs relegation fodder.
 
I've often thought why don't they just play the CL final or even the semi finals in foreign countries to satisfy demand?

That would surely be of more interest than random mid table league games.
 
Some stats for thought. Last season, Manchester United vs Liverpool only drew in 594,000 US television viewers compared to 1.25 million that watched Club America vs Leon (both Mexican club teams). You could see from the stats that there is money to be made from the US television market.

Crazy stat.
 
Don't know why there's so much truculent hostility to this idea. Foreign players, managers, sponsors, agents, fans et cet have been a part of the game for decades. Foreign locations was only a matter of time. And it's only 15 years.
 
A globalised English league?

That sentence doesn’t even make sense....
It will make sense if you see the revenue earned from England and overseas. Unfortunately, it’s become a product now and the product will be continuously updated to target majority of the customers.

Very soon we will start seeing franchising as well. India may have a club franchise very soon named “Manchester United” competing in local leagues. It’s a branding game and first movers advantage.
 
It will make sense if you see the revenue earned from England and overseas. Unfortunately, it’s become a product now and the product will be continuously updated to target majority of the customers.

Very soon we will start seeing franchising as well. India may have a club franchise very soon named “Manchester United” competing in local leagues. It’s a branding game and first movers advantage.

Nowhere but Manchester will have a professional football team called Manchester United based in it.

If United did go the City route of buying up clubs, we might see Mumbai United who play in red, white and black, but we won't see Manchester United anywhere but Manchester.
 
I don't see much wrong with this. Obviously they won't move a Top 6 team matchup. And no derbies. So the best you'd get to see in US would be amongst the likes of United vs Everton.

I solved all of this earlier in the thread if the FA really wants to go down this route. No fecking about with the league either:

Off the top of my head, the only real solution I'd be happy with would be reformatting the EFL Cup and playing part of that there. Would likely require some messing about with the winter break they're implementing too.

Split the tournament into two "halves"; one with the previous season's top 8 PL teams, and one with every other team that usually enters. The bigger "half" goes basically as it does now, except it'd have a winner of sorts that earn a place in the final. The half with the top 8 go to the US and play a straight knockout format against each other, with the winner, again, earning a place in the final.

Currently, reaching the final of the EFL Cup means 6 games for the teams in Europe. This would reduce it to 4, but obviously mean a trip abroad where they'd have to play 3 games in relatively quick succession (although you could probably send them out to their respective training camps following a weekend's fixtures, play the first round on the following weekend, the second in the midweek, and the third the weekend after again, before heading home pretty much straight after).

It'd provide 7 matches with some actual interest for the crowds wherever it gets played, and means that the league and more prestigious cup don't get fecked with too much other than perhaps a bit of scheduling. Could even extend it to 8 games if the other half was wrapped up before hand and play the final out there too.
 
This is a really horrible idea. And I say this as someone living in the states. And the NFL and NBA are not the best examples to follow since they decided that they do not care about the fans a long time ago. You guys complain about how working class fans are being priced out of games that happened in major American professional sports in like the 60s.


People don’t realize how bad American sports fans are fecked here. There is literally no atmosphere and the jumbotron leads the one or two chants a match. NFL games are easily 250$ a ticket which automatically prices out a vast majority of really fans.


It will make sense if you see the revenue earned from England and overseas. Unfortunately, it’s become a product now and the product will be continuously updated to target majority of the customers.

Very soon we will start seeing franchising as well. India may have a club franchise very soon named “Manchester United” competing in local leagues. It’s a branding game and first movers advantage.

This already happens, City have branches in span Australia USA. I’m suprised no one else has don’t it yet.

Bayern New York or New York United.
 
Surely it’ll just be the bigger clubs playing over there. Hell, they’ll probably start this off with Barca vs. Real Madrid, just to get it going.

Some job justifying to those fans that their biggest game of the year is in America