D-Day for '39th step'

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The club chairmen are holding their summer meeting in Leicester over the next two days, and plans for some form of international expansion are top of the agenda.

A number of different options - including the infamous 'international round' - will be debated by the 20 clubs, and it looks likely that the original idea for each club to play a 39th league match in a foreign country will be abandoned in favour of a less controversial option.

One proposal is for a Premier League-branded pre-season tournament that would be played by member clubs overseas.

Unlike the '39th step', the alternative games would not be viewed as competitive fixtures but would still offer foreign fans the chance to watch live matches - involving the likes of Manchester United taking on their Premier League opponents.

The league already have positive experiences from the Barclays Asia Trophy where a crowd of 40,000 in Hong Kong last July watched Portsmouth beat Liverpool on penalties.

It is believed the latest proposal would be to extend these branded friendly competitions to other hotspots of Premier League interest - such as the Middle East, South Africa and the USA.

The alternative format would provoke less opposition from the three member clubs, including Manchester United and Liverpool, who were against the '39th step' - not to mention FIFA, UEFA and the Football Association.

The original 'international round' is still be on the agenda as a possibility at one end of the range of alternatives - and although the likes of Everton and Blackburn are strongly in favour because of the financial benefits, that looks increasingly unlikely to be pursued.

The Premier League clubs are also set to outlaw third-party ownership of players to avoid future controversies such as the Carlos Tevez saga. In future, clubs will have to buy out all third-party owners so that they own the players completely.