Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, likes to portray himself as a football fan but has risked upsetting many with his claim that Premier League fixtures being played abroad is an inevitability.
The idea of competitive English top-flight games taking place outside the country was first mooted by the Premier League in 2008 and was met with an immediate backlash from domestic supporters, with various organisations, including the Football Association, also making clear their objections. The proposal, which would have seen clubs receive around £5m from their involvement in an additional “international round”, was quickly ditched only to rear its head this year when Jon Miller, an executive at NBC Sports, which hold the rights to screen the Premier League in the United States, outlined the network’s desire to hold matches there, with the Premier League’s chief executive, Richard Masters, stating soon after that the “door looks ajar” for such a move.
Now Khan, who in his eight years as London mayor has heavily supported US sports, namely the NFL and Major League Baseball, holding competitive fixtures in the capital, has waded into the debate with tentative support for football travelling in the other direction. “I think that’s the way it is going,” the 53-year-old told the Sports Agents podcast. “We’ve seen some other leagues across Europe have some of their competitive games held elsewhere. All 32 NFL teams have now played in London and all of them have had a great experience. We have some of the top baseball teams now playing in London.
Dear @MayorofLondon - a quick question. Are you really saying you'd be happy to see the North London derby played in LA or NYC?
— The FSA (@WeAreTheFSA) July 26, 2024
We suggest you talk to matchgoers (or the PM!) to find out what supporters really want - and we're happy to meet you.https://t.co/hUTGqhsTmb
“We’ve got seven Premier League clubs in London but when you look at the way the Premier League works, a lot of the revenue they receive is TV rights. Liverpool, the team that I support, are currently on tour in America. I think the point that the Premier League would make and some of the owners would make is, why can’t their fans in those countries benefit from a competitive game?
“The key thing for me is to make sure our fans don’t lose out. The thing we’ve learned from American football is often when the players go back to America the next game is an issue because of time zone, because of diet and so forth.”
After the comments from Miller and Masters, the Football Supporters’ Association made clear its opposition to any competitive English games taking place abroad. “We defeated Game 39 in 2008 and we’d attack any attempted revival with a full blown, two feet off the ground, studs to the knee tackle,” the FSA stated, coming to the fore again in reaction to Khan’s comments. “Dear @MayorofLondon – a quick question. Are you really saying you’d be happy to see the North London derby played in LA or NYC?” it wrote on X. “We suggest you talk to matchgoers (or the PM!) to find out what supporters really want – and we’re happy to meet you.”
Khan may well be aware that Liverpool’s chairman, Tom Werner, last month stated his desire to see a Premier League match in New York, as well as in other cities across the globe, an idea that was swiftly played down by Fenway Sports Group’s principal owner, John W Henry, and rejected entirely by the Liverpool supporters’ union, Spirit of Shankly. “Anyone determined to play competitive LFC Premier League matches abroad should remember that we as fans are determined they don’t,” it stated.
