Chelsea manager Avram Grant is usually a quietly-spoken reserved man who isn’t too eager to rush into any decisons. Yet the Israeli has come out of his shell in respect to the controversial Premier League plans to stage an international round of Premiership fixtures and has actually supported the idea.
Grant says that FIFA president Sepp Blatter has been too hasty to dismiss the idea and like Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says that this idea is actually a good idea that needs a little consideration and modification. Grant says:
I understand Mr Blatter but to say no to this idea, it is not the right thing.
We need to check many things but to play abroad you need to make the fixtures right. If everything is right I don’t see any negative things about this.
We can keep the tradition of the English League even if we play one game of the season away.
The basis of football is not money. It is the only profession in the world that you are interested in because you have a lot of passion.
I have had a lot of passion for this game since I was a child. You cannot separate this from the economic side.
If it is only about money, I am against it.
There are many supporters of the Premier League abroad that maybe deserve one time of the year to see it live, then I don’t think it is a bad idea.
We need to be open and I cannot say 100 per cent that it is a good idea, but we need to think about it.
So the Premier League has some managerial support at least. Most of the Premier League managers have either rejected the idea or decided to sit on the fence but Grant is clearly in favour of the plan.