EPL - The British Empires New Colonialism

They used to say the sun never set on the British Empire, if some EPL officials get their way we'll soon be saying the sun never sets on the EPL. The marketing whiz's at the long-ball league have devised a new scheme to consume as much of the worlds capital as possible.

If you haven't heard, the idea is to play an extra round in the league and for these extra games to be played abroad. How far are they really willing to cheapen the sport to make extra money? The fact that it would destroy the home and away aspect of the league would automatically degrade the EPL.

The Football Federation of Australia was quick with its response to the idea, no. The FFA, who brought David Beckham, sorry, the LA Galaxy out for a friendly (mid-season), has said that it doesn't want the EPL's sideshow alley wheeled out once a year in Australia because it fears it would harm the development of the A-League.

And fair enough. While the EPL's revenue and fan base may increase from a travelling freak show called the 39th round, all that many and all those fans have to come from somewhere. I wonder how many other countries will take a similar stance.

I think if the FA wants to take the Carling Cup on the road then fair enough. It's already just a money-spinning waste of time that only serves to give the juniors a run around. They could play all the rounds at international venues and sell the final to the highest bidder.

Innovation is important in football. We all love to watch players display innovation on the field, but innovation at an administrative level has kept the game dominant across the globe. Changing to 3 points for a victory instead of 2, the pass-back rule and more have all kept the sport entertaining. But this idea isn't innovative, it’s an attempt to abuse the sports popularity to squeeze a few more dollars out of the fans so the clubs can continue to import talent rather than go through all the fuss of actually creating a functioning youth development program.