According to the Associated Press, the English Premier League is looking into scheduling friendlies involving fellow EPL teams at various places around the world. This already happens in the United States with the International Champions Cup with Liverpool vs. Manchester City and Liverpool vs. Manchester United as examples from this past season, but the vast majority of those games involve an EPL team against a domestic team in that country.
Six years ago, teams wanted to add a 39th game to the schedule and have that in different parts of the world but it was not allowed by FIFA and the EPL. While I would have loved to see that, it would have made the schedule unbalanced and the EPL championship would lose a bit of luster.
Personally, I can’t see this changing anything when it comes to growing soccer in the United States. Top teams like Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool routinely come to the States every few years and there is always a healthy dose of top teams from the top European leagues coming to the USA every year. Regular season games are impossible to implement and friendlies will always consist of two teams who are more focused on not getting hurt instead of the final score. I get that the EPL saw 109,318 pack Michigan Stadium for Manchester United vs. Real Madrid and they see $$$, but you won’t even see a quarter of that crowd if Ann Arbor is subjected to Burnley vs. Crystal Palace.
(h/t Associated Press)
