Manchester United chief David Gill says they support the Premier League's plans for a global round.

"We understand why the Premier League should evaluate all these opportunities," he said. "Other sports, for example the NBA in particular, are making inroads into these markets and I think it was totally appropriate for the league to evaluate it.

"But I think, like most things in football, it became public much too soon before all the issues had been thought through.

"Our position as a club, having discussed it earlier, was that we were supportive of it being looked into and I think one of our key issues concerned the symmetry of the competition and the fact that at the moment there are home and away games.

"I think these issues were shared by other clubs when they thought about it further and how we would assess which teams would play the extra game and what bearing that would have on the league.

"Very often one or two points decide relegation or the championship so that game could have a big bearing and it would have to be organised whereby the top teams were kept apart in order to drive forward the commercial values.

"We fully support the Premier League not to be complacent and not to think that because it (the Premier League) has had so much success it will continue to do so."