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Richard Scudamore: Premier League games will be played abroad once fans ‘understand the parameters’

6 years ago
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The Premier League really are shameless when it comes to trying to generate ever more cash.

Despite the Premier League generating more money than any other domestic league in the world, they would quite literally do anything to make even more.

Premier League Executive Chairman Richard Scudamore has been asked once again about the ‘39th game’, which he had proposed on behalf of the Premier League back in 2008.

The plan was to play a round of extra Premier League matches at various venues around the world.

An idea which fans and all other decent people campaigned against, knowing fell well that the Trojan Horse agenda would be to then push for more and more games to be played abroad.

However, rather than doing the decent thing and dropping the whole idea, Scudamore says the Premier League are still determined to get the idea pushed through eventually.

Richard Scudamore admits that he and the clubs know that they couldn’t force it through at the minute but that once fans ‘understand the parameters’, they won’t try it on again.

With Scudamore saying that the idea would be to move normal Premier League matches abroad, rather than an extra 39th match, you can’t imagine any circumstances at all where your match-going supporters would agree to this.

Richard Scudamore speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live:

“We have not changed our position.

“We thought it was a good idea at the time.

“Maybe not a 39th game – I think it evolved more to playing a round of (normal) fixtures abroad.

“The clubs continue to think, in principle, it is a good idea.

“But we have also said that until the conditions are right, and until we can create the conditions where fans are…if not happy, then understand the parameters, then we are not going to be able to do it.”

Richard Scudamore was also taking about the so far unsold (to UK market bidders) 40 Premier League Live TV matches for 2019-2022.

The Premier League bosses had increased the number of games from 168 in the current deal to a massive 200 of the 380 available, once again trampling over match-going fans in the hope of making more cash.

However, the Premier League only managed to sell 160 of the 200 games, with Sky taking 128 and BT Sport 32.

The other two packages totalling 40 games not attracting anybody prepared to pay enough for them.

Hopes for the PL bosses that Amazon, Facebook, Netflix, Twitter would bid for the first time and take packages, proving unfounded.

Scudamore though says the sale of these two packages is now imminent.

It will be truly shocking if these 40 remaining matches are sold on the basis that any extra cash is worth having, rather than for once thinking that the inconvenience to match-going supporters is more important than the level of cash on offer.

Richard Scudamore:

“We are in the process of selling them.

“We have got different things we can do and we are investigating all of those.

“It is imminent. It won’t be long.

“We are also in the middle of our global rights process as well.

“We are very confident that come the end of this year the rights will have gone up again for the Premier League for the three years starting 2019.

“They will be up and we certainly think by a decent amount and the show carries on.”

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