Manchester United's David Gill is to deliver a body blow to the proposal for overseas games by telling the FA he opposes the plans.

Chief executive Gill is one of only three top-flight representatives on the FA board, so it will be an uphill struggle for Premier League chairman Sir Dave Richards to persuade the other members to back the scheme for each club to play a 39th match in a foreign city.

The best the Premier League can hope for is to be given more time to develop their proposals, and it is thought that the Football League chairman Lord Mawhinney will argue the case for that course of action.

But with Gill in opposition, even that may be in doubt if the other board members - of whom half come from the amateur game - feel the plan on the table is unworkable.

In that case, the league will have little option but to go away and return with an entirely new concept of how to harness overseas interest.