Liverpool fans are responding to the club’s ambition to play the Premier League game in the US

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner is “determined one day” to see the Reds play a Premier League game in New York – an idea that was met with immediate resistance from fans.

The subject of Europe’s top leagues holding games abroad has been revived after FIFA recently opened a review of its rules blocking so-called “off-territory” games. The Premier League proposed in 2008 to stage an extra round of games each season outside England, but met strong opposition from supporters’ groups as well as FIFA.

If FIFA changes its policy, it could open the door for European leagues to hold matches in the US and Saudi Arabia – both key and lucrative future tournament hosts for the world governing body – as well as other countries where top clubs frequently play off-season exhibitions.

“I am determined that one day there will be a Premier League game in New York,” Werner told the Financial Times in an interview published on Friday. Werner outlined an even more ambitious “crazy” plan for more Premier League matches to be played in a continuous schedule around the world on the same day.

“I even have this kind of crazy idea,” Werner said, “that there’s going to be a day where we play a game in Tokyo, a game a few hours later in Los Angeles, a game a few hours later in Rio, a game . a few hours later in Riyadh and let’s make it a day where football, where the Premier League, is celebrated”.

Opposition came quickly from one of Liverpool’s main supporters’ groups, Spirit of Shankly, who wrote on social media: “Anyone who is determined to play competitive LFC Premier League matches abroad should remember that we , as fans, we are determined that he doesn’t.”

Playing league games abroad has been a red line for European football, even as countries such as Spain, Italy and France have taken their domestic Super Cup matches to Saudi Arabia, China and Israel. Supercups are largely ceremonial events played between the previous season’s national league and cup title winners. Liverpool’s main owner, American financier John Henry, appeared to be immune to fan backlash. The FT reported that Henry, also the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, stressed that Werner’s hopes for a game in New York were “not something I particularly support or care about.”

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Henry had to apologize to Liverpool fans in 2021 for entering the club into the highly divisive Super League, which 12 teams have historically tried to launch, as a break from the traditional competitive structure of European football. An angry backlash from fans and threats of legislation from the British government forced the six English clubs to withdraw and the Super League plan collapsed within 48 hours. Real Madrid and Barcelona are still working on plans to revive the project.

“Away” games risk creating another rift between English fans and their club owners, who are increasingly billionaires from US and Middle Eastern nation states. Holding games abroad is “not part of our current plans, really not,” Premier League chief executive Richard Masters said in April after FIFA fueled speculation by agreeing to withdraw from a lawsuit in New York on this issue. FIFA president Gianni Infantino last month gave no time frame for when his review would be completed.

The criteria the FIFA task force considered included supporting domestic fans to travel thousands of miles (kilometers) for games and protecting local teams that could be overshadowed by global brand clubs coming to play near them .

“Let’s find a way to give them very cheap travel, accommodation, so that if Liverpool play Nottingham Forest, we can support the fans coming to New York and make it an attractive thing for the fans as well,” Werner told the FT . Former England and Barcelona great Gary Lineker’s reaction on social media last month to the idea of ​​playing games abroad was clear: “No. Not. Not”.

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