Whatever the argument against the proposed 39th Premiership game you might hear, none is more compelling than the fact the English league would become an English cup competition if an extra game was introduced. The fact that each team plays each other twice, once at home, once away, is the most fair way to decide who the best team in the country is.
Whilst the European Cup and FA Cup are massive prizes, they essentially prove nothing. Winning the league proves beyond any doubt that you have the best side in the land. The moment an extra game is introduced, this proof disappears.
Take last season, when the Premiership might have been won on goal difference. Our league is so close at times that the fact your defence and attack have the edge over your rivals, despite picking up the same amount of points in the matches, can be the defining attribute of champions. Add in another game and this slight difference can be swung unfairly in another team’s balance.
For example, imagining the team you play for the 39th game is drawn at random, United may face Liverpool in Japan, whilst Chelsea face West Brom in France. The league becomes flawed. Chelsea could win the title on goal difference or marginal points, whilst United lost out because of a more difficult fixture. This could also be applied in an alternative way though, with United being handed the easier game. Whilst winning is always the most important thing, I wouldn’t want people claiming our title win was dodgy because our result against West Brom, in contrast to Chelsea’s result against Liverpool, was what clinched us the title.
Unsurprisingly, Sir Alex Ferguson, like every other person with sense, agrees.
“I don’t think there will ever be a 39th game and I don’t believe there should be,” said Ferguson. “I certainly am not in favour of it. You look at our domestic programme allied to our cup competitions. It is impossible.”
Makes sense and I totally agree. There shouldn’t be a 39th game. It’ll throw a spanner into our the lives we love and know.It’s fine the way it is, I hope they’d leave it alone.
If they want to market the Premier League a more sensible option would be to try and put together a Premier League XI and tour for some of pre season
Jonny are you on crack?
what’s wrong with 38 games?
Money would be the only reason for it and that appears to be another example of money contributing to the games demise as we know it.
Its laughable, only for the muppets are fucking serious.
It just shows the powers that be have absolutely no respect for the match going fans, or for the tradition of the proudest football league in the world.
The more this all turns into a business (a process that started a long time ago), the more it turns my stomach…
English football sold it soul when the premier league was formed, this is just another example of the honest match goung supporter being screwed out of more money.
Scudamore looks at the premier league as a “product” rather than what we all see it as, a way of life for families for generations. The true fan is being forced out of the game and that to me is sickening.
the FA is daft
Gotta love all the ABU cunts coming out of the woodwork on sites like 606 accusing SAF of double-standards.
Just proves none of ‘em have any fuckin’ intelligence!
I don’t know why Fergie’s talking about GAM£ 39 when
it was agreed less than a week after it was proposed
that it would never come to fruition. People left and right
criticised the idea and ridiculed Richard Scudamore,
including various MPs, Sepp Blatter [he usually likes stupid
ideas], Platini and the President of the Asian F.A.
maybe they could have a pre season tournament with all the prem teams involved, all around the world, it is an unfair advantage if one game is in turkey or even africa and one is australia, which is a completely different time zone. A pre season cup is the way to go