EPL should follow NFL lead
The so-called 39th Step which has had football traditionalists shaking their heads at the ever-changing face of the beautiful game into a global business was afforded an insight into how to achieve such a bold move at Wembley Stadium yesterday.
The National Football League (NFL) played its second regular season game at England’s famous venue with New Orleans Saints powering past the San Diegoe Chargers in an explosive and entertaining match in front of more than 83,000 fans.
It was a brave move by the NFL 18 months ago when it announced ahead of Superbowl XLII that the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins would play the first ever regular season game outside of the United States, taking the national game out of its comfort zone.
And it is a move that suggests to the FA and the Premier League that taking your brand into other growing markets can only enhance your product.
Even though the first installment of gridiron in Europe was a drab affair between the Dolphins and the Giants in torrential autumnal rain, it did little to dampen the spirits of the NFL’s governers who immediately set about a return to England for a second outing.
The enthusiasm of the British and European fans for the game was also strengthened by the fixture and they again marched in their thousands down Olympic Way yesterday, decked out in colours of all the 32 teams with shirts sporting names from the past like Dan Marino and future Hall of Famers like Tom Brady.
For fans of American Football on this side of the Atlantic, the Bridgestone International Series is the only chance they get to see the biggest league in the world up close.
So they do not care who plays who, what the score is or how many touchdowns are scored; all that matters is they are seeing the sport played by the best in the business, in the flesh.
And that is all that fans of ‘soccer’ and the EPL - which is the Premier League’s acronym according to our American colleagues - want to see; club football played at the highest level by the best players, in their country.
Fans in Bahrain won’t care if Stoke City are playing West Brom, the Sydney branch of the Everton Supporters Club won’t be put off by Liverpool v Hull City, and Cristiano Ronaldo worshippers in Singapore will still turn out in their thousands to see Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland.
One solution to the 39th Step that the Premier League continue to look into, would be a seeding system for which teams are involved in which cities.
Seeding could be based on positions a team finishes in at the end of the season, ie. with the three relegated teams replaced by the three promoted teams, and the 39th Step being matches contested the following winter. First could play second with the second and third promoted teams also playing each other on one day in say Dubai.
In another city, Tokyo perhaps, third would play fourth and 17th play the winners of the Championship, and so on...
The suggestion that English fans would miss out - which continues to be one of the concerns forwarded by clubs - is ludicrous.
Loyal fans follow their team all over Europe from Paris to Moscow, Istanbul to Oslo. Why would they not support their team in a meaningful fixture in Los Angeles or Cape Town?
The Premier League could also learn from the NFL on how to make the event an occassion and not just a football match. The Stereophonics did a pre-game set at Wembley yesterday, followed by the respective national anthems being sung to help engender an atmosphere inside the stadium.
The game itself was a cracker, and exactly what the NFL powerbrokers would want from an isolated contest charged with promoting the sport.
New Orleans and San Diego conjured eight touchdowns between them, two of the game’s most exciting young quarterbacks Drew Brees and Philip Rivers threw three touchdowns apiece, and the two teams combined for a staggering 860 yards total offence.
In LaDainian Tomlinson, the San Diego Chargers running back, NFL fans in England witnessed one of the game’s greats in action, his speed of thought and movement providing some of the main highlights of the day.
Such high-power offense begs the question of what happened to the defense. Well, they were sloppy with neither quarterback troubled and coverage in the secondary sparse, although New Orleans’ linebacker Jonathan Vilma proved the exception with some key plays.
Any NFL game that goes down to the wire is going to be exciting, and the outcome of this match was still up in the air in the final second when Rivers’ hail mary into the endzone failed to find a Chargers receiver.
The Saints opened the door for their opponents with a bizarre safety which head coach Sean Payton later explained as a well-drilled practice designed at shaving seconds off the clock.
Whatever it was, it led to an exciting conclusion.
Few British fans among the 83,000 in attendance will have left Wembley feeling short-changed by the match or the event.
I for one will be going back next year, and will be in support of the Premier League if they go ahead with the bold but beneficial 39th Step.
The National Football League (NFL) played its second regular season game at England’s famous venue with New Orleans Saints powering past the San Diegoe Chargers in an explosive and entertaining match in front of more than 83,000 fans.
It was a brave move by the NFL 18 months ago when it announced ahead of Superbowl XLII that the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins would play the first ever regular season game outside of the United States, taking the national game out of its comfort zone.
And it is a move that suggests to the FA and the Premier League that taking your brand into other growing markets can only enhance your product.
Even though the first installment of gridiron in Europe was a drab affair between the Dolphins and the Giants in torrential autumnal rain, it did little to dampen the spirits of the NFL’s governers who immediately set about a return to England for a second outing.
The enthusiasm of the British and European fans for the game was also strengthened by the fixture and they again marched in their thousands down Olympic Way yesterday, decked out in colours of all the 32 teams with shirts sporting names from the past like Dan Marino and future Hall of Famers like Tom Brady.
For fans of American Football on this side of the Atlantic, the Bridgestone International Series is the only chance they get to see the biggest league in the world up close.
So they do not care who plays who, what the score is or how many touchdowns are scored; all that matters is they are seeing the sport played by the best in the business, in the flesh.
And that is all that fans of ‘soccer’ and the EPL - which is the Premier League’s acronym according to our American colleagues - want to see; club football played at the highest level by the best players, in their country.
Fans in Bahrain won’t care if Stoke City are playing West Brom, the Sydney branch of the Everton Supporters Club won’t be put off by Liverpool v Hull City, and Cristiano Ronaldo worshippers in Singapore will still turn out in their thousands to see Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland.
One solution to the 39th Step that the Premier League continue to look into, would be a seeding system for which teams are involved in which cities.
Seeding could be based on positions a team finishes in at the end of the season, ie. with the three relegated teams replaced by the three promoted teams, and the 39th Step being matches contested the following winter. First could play second with the second and third promoted teams also playing each other on one day in say Dubai.
In another city, Tokyo perhaps, third would play fourth and 17th play the winners of the Championship, and so on...
The suggestion that English fans would miss out - which continues to be one of the concerns forwarded by clubs - is ludicrous.
Loyal fans follow their team all over Europe from Paris to Moscow, Istanbul to Oslo. Why would they not support their team in a meaningful fixture in Los Angeles or Cape Town?
The Premier League could also learn from the NFL on how to make the event an occassion and not just a football match. The Stereophonics did a pre-game set at Wembley yesterday, followed by the respective national anthems being sung to help engender an atmosphere inside the stadium.
The game itself was a cracker, and exactly what the NFL powerbrokers would want from an isolated contest charged with promoting the sport.
New Orleans and San Diego conjured eight touchdowns between them, two of the game’s most exciting young quarterbacks Drew Brees and Philip Rivers threw three touchdowns apiece, and the two teams combined for a staggering 860 yards total offence.
In LaDainian Tomlinson, the San Diego Chargers running back, NFL fans in England witnessed one of the game’s greats in action, his speed of thought and movement providing some of the main highlights of the day.
Such high-power offense begs the question of what happened to the defense. Well, they were sloppy with neither quarterback troubled and coverage in the secondary sparse, although New Orleans’ linebacker Jonathan Vilma proved the exception with some key plays.
Any NFL game that goes down to the wire is going to be exciting, and the outcome of this match was still up in the air in the final second when Rivers’ hail mary into the endzone failed to find a Chargers receiver.
The Saints opened the door for their opponents with a bizarre safety which head coach Sean Payton later explained as a well-drilled practice designed at shaving seconds off the clock.
Whatever it was, it led to an exciting conclusion.
Few British fans among the 83,000 in attendance will have left Wembley feeling short-changed by the match or the event.
I for one will be going back next year, and will be in support of the Premier League if they go ahead with the bold but beneficial 39th Step.
Labels: Drew Brees, LaDainian Tomlinson, Liverpool, New Orleans Saints, NFL, Philip Rivers, Premier League, San Diego Chargers, Tottenham Hotspur
posted by Nick Westby at 12:39 PM
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