If the Premier League hopes to conquer the United States, it will have to deliver the best product or risk looking inferior to Major League Soccer (MLS), according to Alexi Lalas, the general manager of the Los Angeles Galaxy. Lalas, who has played in Serie A in Italy and helped to take David Beckham and Ruud Gullit to California, welcomes the prospect of Premier League matches being played on his patch, but he gave warning that the effects may not be those that English football’s powers-that-be intend.

“I’m actually excited about it, but maybe not for the same reasons that others are,” he said. “I look at it as a great way for our fans and the soccer public here in general to get an opportunity to see first hand the level of EPL [English Premier League]teams, and I think we are going to measure up to, and in some cases surpass, that level. It’s a great way for us to come out looking a whole lot better than the perception of us.

“English teams have been coming here for years, although not for competitive games, so yes, it’s great that the games could help to decide championships or who goes down. But I caution you folks, because there are a handful of ‘super clubs’ in the EPL, but when you get into the mid and lower tier, those brands — as strong as they may be domestically in the UK — have much less value here. Just because it is EPL does not mean it is going to sell.

“They can come over and play these games and people can come and check it out, but I think they are going to leave the stadium more often than not thinking: ‘I can get much better value and more excitement by going to see my Galaxy play.’ We do not have a monopoly on crap soccer — it’s played all over the world.”

Grahame Jones, who covers the sport for the Los Angeles Times, is equally sceptical about the chances of Middlesbrough or Wigan Athletic packing the Rose Bowl in Pasadena or the LA Coliseum. “The success of it depends on what teams are involved,” he said. “If it’s Chelsea and Manchester United, they will sell out. If it’s Reading, it’s not going to mean anything. They are not naive over here, they know who is what. People know which teams are competitive and which ones are just along for the ride.

“There is a big market over here if you do things right. The match between Mexico and the US in Houston [on Wednesday] sold out 70,000 seats and I’ve seen crowds in the United States of 70, 80, 90,000 here for Barcelona, Real Madrid, Celtic, Manchester United.

“But if it’s two lower-level teams who are not really fighting for anything and haven’t got any big-name players, it’s not going to draw more than MLS draws now, which is 15,000-20,000. Just because it counts for points back in England doesn’t mean it will mean anything over here. And I’m not sure how MLS is going to feel about it. I assume they will have to be involved in some way.”

Numbers crunch

- Never mind fans, the real victims of the Premier League’s overseas adventure will be statisticians. Already reeling from the name changes that have rendered phrases such as “first division champions” and “championship winners” meaningless without the extra information of the year the achievement took place and the dates that the terminology changed, the number crunchers face more problems.

- There is the irritation of league tables becoming almost 50 per cent wider, with sections for home, away and neutral games. And they will lack comprehensiveness. Since league football began in 1888, final tables have revealed which fixtures have been played — each team have met each other home and away — but now only the impractical addition of the dreaded asterisks will give the full picture.

- Results grids that show home results on a horizontal line and away results on a vertical will have no natural place for neutral games.

- No longer will achieving the double over a rival team be the ultimate triumph during a season. The question will have to be asked: “Was a treble possible?” At least new avenues of statistics open up. For example, Portsmouth have not beaten Manchester City in Cairo for 246 years (ie, in two attempts).

Words by Bill Edgar