The debate surrounding Premier League matches being played abroad has cropped up again in recent days.
The ancient art of sumo wrestling was first recorded in prehistoric wall paintings, indicating that the practice originated from an agricultural ritual dance performed in prayer for a good harvest.
The first mention of sumo in the written word came in a Kojiki manuscript dating back to 712, which described how possession of the Japanese islands was decided in a grapple between two mythical deities known as Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata.
And last week, some 1,300 or so years later, an array of stars from the Land of the Rising Sun descended on London’s Royal Albert Hall like a battalion of cuddly kaiju to compete for honour, glory, and - judging by the photographs from the winner’s circle - a novelty-sized bottle of soy sauce. It was, by all accounts, good fun, and the wrestlers themselves - whether they were day-tripping at Stonehenge or missioning about on Lime bikes in silk kimonos - looked to be having a blast.
But while the week-long spectacle was undoubtedly a success - although it remains to be seen whether the sumo ultras back home who had to stay up until the wee hours to watch grand champion Hoshoryu Tomokatsu hoist his commemorative Hello Kitty plushie aloft would agree - it is emblematic of a sporting culture which continues to tread the high wire between globalisation and gimmickry. And that brings us, in a tangential sort of way, to the pesky question of Premier League matches being played on foreign soil.
It is, after all, a timely topic. Earlier this month, UEFA “reluctantly” sanctioned a pair of fixtures - one from La Liga, one from Serie A - to be held abroad, while maintaining that the decision “will not set a precedent”. Whether their conviction matches their rhetoric, only time will tell.
Then, when quizzed on the prospect of English clubs jetting off for similar ventures in exotic climes, Burnley chairman Alan Pace - who also happens to own Spanish outfit RCD Espanyol - told a recent fan forum that he wasn’t against the idea. Kind of.
“I’ll be very clear on this one”, he said. “I would vote for it. But I don’t think you have to do it for one of the seasonal games that are meant for the league, but I can see them doing it for a cup or a special cup that allows for it or something that finds a way to strike the balance.
“I do think that building an opportunity for both the league and the fans to travel to another place and see games, there’s something in it. Would I be willing to vote for the exploration? Yes I would. Would I be willing to take our game against, let’s say, Man City and play it elsewhere? No, I don’t really think so.”
Now, for their part, the Premier League maintain that they have no interest in mimicking their continental counterparts and their expansionist schemes. As recently as August, chief executive Richard Masters insisted that there are no plans to play an English top flight match abroad. Then again, this is a debate that has reared its unsightly mug on a semi-regular basis ever since the notion of a “39th game” was raised - and subsequently browbeaten into impracticality - all the way back in 2008.
But the renewed fear amongst supporters must be that for all of their encouraging words, top flight chiefs, like most powerful people who already have an excessive amount of something, inevitably want even more; more eyeballs, more clicks, more zeroes on the bank account. And for a while now, there has seemingly been a feeling of doomed consensus that the most spectacular way of trying to slake that quenchless thirst is to take the show on the road. I mean, hey, if it worked for P.T. Barnum and his travelling circus... The difference this time is that there are willing guinea pigs in the European game; if these fixtures go ahead, and if they turn out to be the money-spinners that the suits so desperately crave, will the Premier League truly be content with being left behind?
Ignore the fact that, as a brand, the English top flight is already the most ubiquitous footballing product on the planet; ignore the fact that there are global audiences who already have greater viewing access to the vast majority of games than supporters in this country because of Saturday 3pm blackout legislation and ravenously priced subscription models; ignore the fact that even more frequently contested than the foreign fixture debate is the dispute over player welfare and an overcrowded schedule as is - the truth is that if there are markets to capitalised upon and wallets to be milked dry, the Premier League will, at the very least, be tempted.
And what, exactly, would that look like? Well, all going to plan, AC Milan will face Como in Perth, Australia next February, so would it be out of the question to have, say, Sunderland vs Aston Vila unilaterally relocated to Jakarta? Or what about Arsenal and Crystal Palace lining up in Los Angeles? In fact, why stop there? Let’s have Manchester City and West Ham go toe-to-toe on the moon and a Merseyside derby held on a flotilla in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. And all the while, fans back home are setting their alarm clocks in the dead of night, wondering how badly jet lag is going to impact their FPL squad this week.
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Because if the past avarice of football’s governing bodies has taught us anything, its that one game abroad may ultimately come to represent the thin end of a deeply uncomfortable wedge with which the domestic fan could eventually be shafted.
But all hope is not lost. You may have noticed that we are still yet to properly mention La Liga’s mooted sojourn, a showdown between Barcelona and Villarreal in Miami, originally pencilled in for this December. And that’s because, as things stand, it isn’t happening.
Widespread protests, including scathing comments from players like Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, have forced Spanish authorities to nix their plans - certainly for now, and potentially for good.
Indeed, a statement from La Liga reads: "Following discussions with the promoter of the official La Liga match in Miami, the latter has announced its decision to cancel the event due to the uncertainty surrounding Spain in recent weeks. La Liga deeply regrets that this project, which represented a historic and unparalleled opportunity for the internationalisation of Spanish football, cannot go ahead."
A more flagrant lack of remorse you may never come across, but the point stands that with enough outcry and pushback, even the richest of gravy trains can be derailed. In the fullness of time, perhaps Premier League chiefs will hold firm and resist the pound signs that must be fluttering round their heads like cartoon cuckoos, but even if they do buckle, the Spanish have proven that it doesn’t necessarily have to be the end of the matter.
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