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While every major U.S. men’s pro sports league is pushing to play as many international games as possible, England’s Premier League wants nothing of the sort.
Premier League chief football officer Tony Scholes said Tuesday there is “no interest in playing [regular-season] games abroad,” including in the U.S. That sentiment arrives despite a legal settlement last year in which FIFA will no longer block domestic games being played in the territories of other federations.
LaLiga, which battles the Premier League for global supremacy in pro soccer, has long sought to have matches in the U.S., particularly its famed El Clásico rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid. The Premier League, however, has no plans to play in the U.S. beyond offseason friendlies.
“We don’t feel the need to come play in the U.S. during the season proper, and you’ll understand the challenges that would present in the U.K. as well,” Scholes said in response to a Front Office Sports question during a midseason briefing with U.S. media outlets.
Contrasting Strategies
The Premier League’s sentiment directly counters an accelerating global push across many major U.S. leagues to play regular-season games outside of North America. Among the recent efforts:
- The NFL will expand beyond the five international games played in 2024, with further announcements for the 2025 season arriving as soon as Wednesday.
- MLB has developed a multiyear “World Tour,” which will start the 2025 season in Tokyo with two games between the Cubs and defending champion Dodgers, who feature Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and Roki Sasaki.
- The NBA just played its 2025 Paris Games, in part featuring the Spurs and native French star Victor Wembanyama.
- The NHL started the season in Prague with games between the Sabres and Devils.
“[Playing internationally] is not on our agenda, and no discussions are taking place,” Scholes said.
Rising Parity
Scholes, meanwhile, lauded the current competitive state of the Premier League, which is showing considerably more balance than it has in many years. After Manchester City won the last four league titles in unprecedented fashion, and six of the last seven, that club now stands in fifth place, 15 points behind first-place Liverpool.
More notable is the ongoing rise of third-place Nottingham Forest, playing in just its third season back in the Premier League after a quarter-century in lower tiers of competition. Bournemouth, meanwhile, is in seventh place, and pushing for a potential spot in the Champions League after previously falling to as low as the fourth tier of England’s soccer pyramid.
“Who would have predicted at this stage of the season, more than halfway through, that Nottingham Forest would be in third place, being realistic challengers if not for the title but for the Champions League?” Scholes said.
Scholes credited a number of factors for the rising parity, including better coaching and player development, and a somewhat more even revenue distribution within the Premier League compared to other entities in the sport.
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