Premier of a bad idea

You couldn’t have a better example of how badly run English football is than the idea for a round of Premier League matches to be played overseas. The issue is not with games being played on foreign shores, Daniel Finkelstein makes a persuasive case for this over on Comment Central, but the fact that the integrity of the competition is being destroyed to make this possible.

The league title should be decided by each team playing every other team an even number of times. This change would abandon that fundamental principle as the games would be an additional round with a draw deciding which teams played each other. Just imagine if a tight title race was decided by the fact that Manchester United thrashed Derby in the overseas round while Arsenal drew with Chelsea.

American sports mix an element of league and cup play because in American football, baseball and basketball there are no separate cup competitions.