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THE STRAITS TIMES
EPL Asians worth their salt
Singapore 30-09-04
ASIA may be the English Premier League's fastest growing market but clubs will not take on Asian players just to exploit their commercial appeal - the risks are far too great.
Said FA Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore in Singapore yesterday: 'The fact that there's so few of them in the EPL means only those who can do the job are picked.'
According to him, clubs cannot afford to have 'passengers' on their playing staff as they are fighting either for qualification into the cash-rich European competitions or to avoid relegation.
'The financial risks are too high,' he added. 'The economics just doesn't work out.'
China's Li Tie (Everton) and Sun Jihai (Manchester City), and Japanese Junichi Inamoto (West Bromwich Albion) are with Premiership clubs this season.
Scudamore admitted that the EPL will 'concentrate our efforts in Asia ahead of Africa and the United States because of the growing fan interest', but denied that the league was depriving Asian soccer of media attention, sponsorship and fan base.
'Ultimately,' he said, 'we are free marketeers. You can't stop the Asian consumers from choosing the EPL over local leagues.'
On the contrary, he believed that the EPL will make more Asians take up the sport.
He disclosed that the three lower divisions of the English league saw a rise in fan support after the EPL was started.
Touching on the three-month protracted talks between ESPN Star Sports and cable provider StarHub - that brought Singapore to the brink of an EPL blackout before being settled last month - he explained that rights to EPL matches are sold once every three years.
'It's a complicated process but it's entirely market-driven,' he said. 'We don't make forecasts so we don't know whether these rights will cost double or treble the next time.'
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