Liverpool v Manchester United in Hong Kong? Reds chief wants Premier League games abroad
- Topic of European matches in foreign countries is hotting up after Fifa removed a block on ‘out-of-territory’ games
The chairman of Liverpool is “determined one day” to see the English football team play a Premier League game in New York – an idea that met immediate resistance from fans on Friday.
The topic of top European leagues staging games abroad has been revived after Fifa recently opened a review of its rules blocking so-called “out-of-territory” games. The Premier League proposed in 2008 to stage an extra round of games each season outside England, but it met with strong opposition from supporter groups as well as Fifa.
“I’m determined one day to have a Premier League game be played in New York City,” Liverpool chairman Tom Werner told the Financial Times.
Werner laid out an even more ambitious “crazy” plan for multiple Premier League games to be played on a rolling schedule around the world on the same day.
“I even have the sort of crazy idea that there would be a day where we play one game in Tokyo, one game a few hours later in Los Angeles, one game a few hours later in Rio, one game a few hours later in Riyadh and make it sort of a day where football, where the Premier League, is celebrated,” he said.
Opposition was quick to come from one of Liverpool’s leading supporter groups, Spirit of Shankly, which wrote on social media: “Anyone determined to play competitive LFC Premier League matches abroad should remember that we as fans are determined they don’t.”
Playing league games abroad has been a red line for European football even if countries like Spain, Italy and France have taken their domestic Super Cup games to Saudi Arabia, China and Israel.
Liverpool’s principal owner, American financier John Henry, seemed to be wary of fans’ reactions.
The FT reported that Henry, also the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, stressed that Werner’s hopes for a game in New York was “not something that I advocate or am particularly interested in”.
Henry had to apologise to Liverpool fans in 2021 for signing the club up for the hugely divisive Super League that 12 elite teams tried to launch as a breakaway from European football’s traditional competitive structure.
A furious backlash by fans and threats of legislation by the British government forced the six English clubs to withdraw and the Super League plan collapsed within 48 hours. Real Madrid and Barcelona are still working on plans to revive the project.
