Blatter's vehement no
Sepp Blatter, the president of football's world governing body FIFA, said on Thursday that plans to stage English Premier League (EPL) games overseas will never happen.
Blatter also warned that the proposals could harm England's attempt to host the World Cup in 2018.
The Premier League announced last week it was considering plans to extend the season to 39 games with the extra matches taking place in five cities overseas, starting in 2011.
But the idea has met with resistance from fans in England, the British media and football federations in Asia and Australia.
"This will never happen," Blatter told the BBC.
"At least this will not happen as long as I am the president of FIFA," he added of the organisation's executive committee meeting next month.
"Those that are richer than the others, they have more responsibility and what the Premier League is trying to do is contrary to this responsibility.
"This does not take into consideration the fans of the clubs and it gives the impression that they just want to go on tour to make some money.
"This is something I cannot understand and definitely the FIFA executive committee will not sanction such an initiative."
At the weekend EPL chief executive Richard Scudamore said there was nothing much FIFA could do if the Premier League gave the all-clear to the expansion plans. But Blatter countered: "It is not true.
"The FIFA executive committee will apply article two of the FIFA statutes, 'to prevent all methods or practices which might jeopardise the integrity of matches or competitions or give rise to abuse of association football'.
"This is abuse. The rich Premier League is trying to get richer and wants to expand the importance of that league."
And Blatter warned that if the Premier League continued with its plans overseas expansion, it could harm England's bid to stage the 2018 World Cup.
"When it comes to a decision of the executive committee concerning this matter of the 39th round, and I am sure they will be against it, then it will not have a positive impact on the bid from England for the World Cup in 2018," he added.
"I support the fans 100 per cent," he said. "If I was a fan in England I would say: 'No, please play at home and don't go and exercise your talents abroad'. If the plan includes official league matches then, as a fan, I would protest against this."
Earlier, Scudamore dismissed reports that some of the 20 EPL clubs were faltering in their support of the plan.
But Scudamore insisted: “We're confident that we had the support of the 20 clubs and we still have the support of the 20 clubs.”
The most controversial aspect of Scudamore's proposal is that the games played overseas will be an additional 39th match for each club, meaning some sides will play each other three times a season with some sort of draw possibly involving seedings deciding the additional fixtures.
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