World Domination

We all know that Premiership football is today a global commodity, having travelled the world I can lay testament to that. You would be genuinely amazed at some of the backwaters a person can spot a Man United shirt these days, I even saw one in America once!

As such, Premiership teams are now firmly established brands and so canny marketeers tend to use pre-season as an excuse to strengthen their foothold in lucrative foreign markets. Gone are the days when Liverpool would warm up for the season with an away tie to Oldham, now instead it's off to Hong Kong to play South China FC in front of 60,000. Even Fulham and Portsmouth have joined the party that is the Barclay's Asia Trophy, although I really can't see the Chinese rushing out to get "Nugent" printed on the back of their moody replica Portsmouth shirts.

Chelsea and Man Utd have the Asian market pretty much sewn up. I can tell you from personal experience that there's nothing more grating that a Thai/Cambodian/Malaysian shouting "Ahhh, Manchester, Arsenal, Chelsea" at you upon discovering you're English.

"Tottenham."
"Huh? Lotland?"
"No, Tott-en-ham-Hot-spur."
"Hahaha, yes, Riverpoo yes!!!"
"NO. TOTT-EN-HAM"

Trust me, this can happen anything up to 5 times a day.

The Big Two have obviously identified the USA as an emerging market. It's a bit of a gamble, as Beckham fever is not going to last forever, but if the yanks do get switched on then they are definitely a nation that will want to back winners. Arsenal have opted to strengthen their brand in Europe (or perhaps can't afford the plane fares) and are in the prestigeous Amsterdam Tournament along with Inter Milan, PSG, Lazio and Ajax - surely a better preparation in footballing terms.

So my question is this: Why have Spurs gone for South Africa? There's no doubt that the Africans love their footy, but is the African Pound really a good pound to go for? Clearly the Chiefs and the Pirates are the top 2 club sides in Africa, but is there a better opportunity elsewhere? Compound this with the fact that we did much the same tour a few years back and you have to wonder what the board are seeing that we are not.

If, as Jose Mourinho believes, we are now including ourselves in the Big Five, then I believe that the focus should be on gaining more exposure on the bigger markets. The Asian economy is booming, none more so than in China. With over a billion potential new customers, and a country that is really embracing football, I would have plugged a tour on the Chinese mainland.

Failing that, Japan would have been a good destination. Cash rich Japanese adore soccer, and with Steve Perryman and Gary Lineker having plied their trade over there then I'm sure it wouldn't take much to recruit them into the yid army. Or perhaps joining Chelsea and Man Utd in the states would have been a better way to announce that we have arrived. Get the yanks talking about the three of us at the same time and we automatically get tarred with the same publicity brush.

Instead we get 3 games on dubious surfaces against the Kaiser Cheifs, the Orlando Pirates and, well erm... the Kaiser Chiefs or the Orlando Pirates again. It hardly generates the prestige or the excitement of the Peace Cup a few years back. But South Africa it is, and we shall never know what we missed out on. Still, on the brighter side, at least the Africans won't have any trouble pronouncing our name.