Gill to go against Premier proposal

12 April 2012

Manchester United chief executive David Gill is expected to deliver a blow to the Premier League's proposal for overseas games by telling the Football Association board on Thursday that the club opposes the plans.

Gill is one of only three top-flight representatives on the FA board, so it will be an uphill struggle for Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards to persuade the other members to back the scheme for each club to play a 39th match in a foreign city.

The best the Premier League can hope for is to be given more time to develop their proposals, and it is thought that the Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney will argue the case for that course of action.

With Gill in opposition, even that may be in doubt if the other board members - of whom half come from the amateur game - feel the plan on the table is unworkable.

In that case, the league will have little option but to go away and return with an entirely new concept of how to harness overseas interest.

Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore had a meeting on Wednesday with his FA counterpart Brian Barwick, and FA chairman Lord Triesman, where he presented the plans in detail.

But the opposition within the FA has hardened over the past two weeks and Triesman has made it clear there are four hurdles for the league to overcome, and that if the objections are not dealt with the league will have to drop the idea.

These are ensuring there is no adverse impact on England's 2018 World Cup bid, that there is no impact on fixture congestion or the fortunes of the national team, that fans are not opposed to the move and that the format of the competition is fair.

Gill is expected to tell the FA board that with the current plan, there is no chance of overcoming those hurdles. He may also point out that those in charge of Liverpool have the same view.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in