Scudamore fears big-club breakaway

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The proposal to extend the season to 39 games from 2010-11 has divided football, with top-flight clubs in favour of the move and some supporters' groups up in arms over the issue.

Scudamore said in the News of the World: "If we don't do something about that involves all 20 clubs, the world will not stand still. There are four or five clubs - I won't name them but you know who they are - who will go off and do this anyway."

Scudamore insists if the Premier League do not act now as a single entity, the top clubs will boost their bank balances by playing more games on foreign soil.

Only last month, Manchester United netted a reported £1million for playing a friendly in Saudi Arabia.

"This plan limits a more radical future. By doing this, it limits more radical nonsense," added Scudamore. "They (big clubs) will make £X out of it and the rest will make nought and it will create further imbalance in our league. If we don't do this, our big clubs will go off and do it to the exclusion of small clubs."

It had been assumed the Premier League need the permission of the game's world governing body if they were to move ahead with the proposal.

Under FIFA statutes, any competitive fixture played in a foreign territory needs the approval of the body's executive committee as well as the football association of the country in which the match is to be played.

But Scudamore hinted the Premier League would be within their rights to defy any FIFA edict prohibiting the plan.

"It needs sanctioning by our own FA and wherever we play it will need sanctioning by the local FA," he said. "There is no perfect hierarchy in football where FIFA can tell UEFA who tell the Premier League what to do."