What planet is Arsene Wenger on?

Just when you thought there would be a landslide in the opposition against the Premier League's doomed plan to take the competition abroad, someone decides to stick their neck out and side with them.

That person just happens to be Arsene Wenger.

To be fair to the Arsenal manager, he is not just defending the FA for the sake of defending the FA. Instead he's tried to base some sort of argument for the idea of expansion. He's basing this said argument on his experience as a manager in Japan in 1995 (which came as news to me - the things you learn every day!) He likes it for two reasons:

1. It shows a desire to innovate.
2. It is good for the fans of the Premier League abroad.

Adding further to his point about his time in Japan, he says that at the time he was managing, they had to play 20% of their games on a neutral ground to promote the game. Whilst he initally laughed off the idea, he came round to it after going through with the idea. In general, he also keeps on re-iterating that people are being too critical and dismissive far too quickly.

The interview clip is up on BBC Sport but he also talks about other things in the same clip, so I recorded the part where he talks about the expansion and I've uploaded it as a streamable mp3 rather than RealPlayer/Windows only.

Click here to listen to 'Arsene-Wenger-talking-about-the-Premier-League-expansion'

The problem with his point about it working in Japan is the timeframe. This was a plan that was in action in 1995. This, however, is 2008. And the neutral grounds idea is now dead in the water. What's more, the vice-president of the Japanese Football Association, Junji Ogura, has already voiced his disapproval, telling BBC Sport:

"In Japan, we don't allow anyone to play a match that involves only foreign clubs and no Japanese teams."

Not only do the presidents, vice-presidents and so forth of these international league organisations think that the idea is a problematic one, but they also do not want their own leagues underminded. This is especially the case in Asia, where football has boomed in popularity since the exploits of the 2002 World Cup hosts, South Korea and Japan. It's also exactly the same in Australia and in North America.

Regarding Wenger's point about this plan being good for fans abroad, I personally feel that countries such as the USA and Asia get a good fix of the Premier League anyway with the several pre-season tours made by the bigger clubs. Last summer, Manchester United embarked on a heavily-promoted pre-season tour of Asia and Chelsea also embarked on a tour with at least equal amounts of promotion to the USA. I believe that alone is giving the fans of the competition enough of a chance to see the teams they follow each week.

Nice try Arsene, but you haven't convinced me to even think about supporting the idea.

FURTHER READING: The best article I read about the whole saga is this one on BBC Sport. Well worth a read just so that you can gather the complete international reaction.