FA board deal blow to proposal

he Premier League's plans for overseas matches have suffered a blow after the Football Association's board said the proposals were "unsustainable".he FA say the League must either return with new plans quickly or drop the idea altogether.The board decided the prospect of each club playing a 39th game in a foreign city would threaten to cause fixture congestion and damage their relations with FIFA and UEFA during the campaign for the 2018 World Cup.FA chairman Lord Triesman said: "At the moment, we have not seen a sustainable plan to which we can agree."If the Premier League has things it wants to say about changes or new variants, well then come forward."But personally, I would prefer it happened sooner rather than later because I don't want this to drift on particularly as we are to launch our World Cup bid (for 2018)."It is understood that there was almost unanimous agreement among the board members that the League's proposals could not be supported in their current format.Triesman will however travel to Zurich on Thursday next week with Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore to meet FIFA president Sepp Blatter, who is staunchly opposed to the '39th step'.

League bosses remain insistent however they are not going to abandon their plan for a year-long consultation on the proposals.