Just think of the mileage...

By Bill Howell on February 8, 2008 9:44 AM | Permalink

I'm all for Villa playing the odd Premier League game in, let's say, Sydney, Barbados or Dubai.

At 10 pence per mile for the diesel it would certainly come in handy at Christmas.

But seriously, it's not right, is it?

The various boards of directors are quoted welcoming the idea.
The managers, apart from Gary Megson, curiously, seem to have binned it as fantasy.
The players...well, I never could fathom Robbie Savage after he wanted to move closer to home in Wales by shifting to Blackburn from Brum.
A flood of overseas owners, including our own Randy Lerner, have seen this coming for some time.
Only yesterday was confirmation from the States that American broadcasting network ESPN would be interested in bidding for the rights to broadcast the Premier League when the tender process opens up at the end of the 2009/10 season.
Rights to broadcast Premier League football in England are currently held jointly with BSkyB and Setanta, at a combined contract value of £1.7 billion across the three season term of the contract.
Is that figure going to be just a drop in the ocean?
The Premier League really is turning into the NFL.
Seven sustitutes per team from next season? I pity the one or two left at Villa who can't even break into that matchday squad.. (Thomas Sorensen will be long gone by then)
They will feel like the tubby, bespectacled kid on the playground that neither captain wants.

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5 Comments

Colin Peel said:

What a cheek... I go to most Villa matches home and away and, yes, if they qualified for Europe I'd love to go. But Premiership abroad just for the hell of it, to sell tickets to foreigners? I would be killed by my missus for following that, she'd just kick me out.
Hmm. When's the first one? I'm in.

February 8, 2008 6:45 PM

Ebeneezer said:

10p a mile? Is that all you get paid? Strewth

February 11, 2008 3:22 PM

Smartarse said:

Methinks 10p is the taz rate for company cars... cos you don't pay for the tax, maintenance, purchase price, and so on. Am I right, Mr Howell?

February 11, 2008 5:21 PM

Smartarse said:

I mean TAX rate, not taz, obviously. (Were' 'taz' a kind of sweet you could buy dispensers for??

February 11, 2008 5:22 PM

Restaurant Pie said:

No, you're thinking of Pez.