IF ALL YOU care about are events at Stamford Bridge, the Emirates or Old Trafford, you could be forgiven for failing to realise that on Saturday afternoon the Barbarians took on Australia at Twickenham.
For those of you unfamiliar with one of rugby’s oldest traditions, the Barbarians are an invitational team of top players from around the world, flung together and given a week’s preparation time (much of it spent in hotel bars) before facing one of the world’s leading international sides.
It is seen as a huge honour to represent the Baa-Baas, and most of the sport’s biggest names will play for them before they bring the curtains down on their careers. It is a team and a tradition rugby values strongly, seeing it as a link back to the sport’s amateur days before rampant professionalism transformed the game.
But could the idea of an invitational team translate to football? Well, yes, and it could even be the acceptable face of the 39th game debate that is currently polarising opinions. How’s this for an idea: in June, after the final round of international fixtures that closes the season, a squad of 20 players – one per Premier League team – travel to Kuala Lumpur for a friendly against a top international side.
They are given three or four days to train and acclimatise, as well as conducting promotional activities on behalf of their club and the league itself. Then they are pitched into action against the likes of Brazil or Argentina in a glamorous – and highly lucrative – friendly.
Television revenues would be split equally between the clubs for the use of their players, while it would also be painted as a wonderful opportunity to spread the word about their club and the Premier League as a whole in a new territory. The TV audience would almost certainly be there. The Premier League is broadcast in 212 territories to a global audience of 4.7 billion, and a one-off friendly would not be too difficult a concept to market. It would be a challenge for the players, an event to take them completely out of their comfort zone.
It would also offer an opportunity to break down bitter rivalries that naturally exist during a football season. Few would fail to enjoy watching Diego Costa and Sergio Aguero attempting to gel up front, or John Terry and Vincent Kompany battling to form a tight centre-back partnership.
And crucially, it could also be an effective compromise between those clamouring for a 39th game and those dead-set against it. The top clubs are thought to be relatively ambivalent to the 39th game idea; after all, Manchester United and Liverpool hardly need more help in conquering new markets. Indeed, it is those lower down the food chain who are pushing the proposals, aware that they need a foothold in Asia or a grounding in America. This idea would allow those clubs to promote themselves alongside the Premier League’s bigger beasts, with a player from Burnley alongside a figure such as Angel Di Maria, for example.
Allstars
For argument’s sake, how about this for a starting XI and squad for a hypothetical game against Brazil in Kuala Lumpur next June.
With only one player allowed of each nationality in order to maximise interest worldwide, the possibilities are endless. It would be quite a team, and there are those who think the idea could work in football.
“It’s a fantastic concept, and if it could work in other sports it would only be to the benefit of those sports,” says Al Kellock, the captain of the Barbarians this weekend. So while it might be a pie-in-the-sky idea, it is perhaps no more ludicrous than the top rugby players flying in from around the world to take part in an invitational match. Then we could have football’s very own Barbarians.
- Julian Bennetts, Goal.com
