The Premiership are ready to hold an entire preseason overseas, it has been revealed.
The People says an amazing plan to take the entire Premier League overseas for a pre-season tournament as a forerunner to the controversial 39th game is being secretly formulated.
The Premier League is in discussions with the Football League to launch a competition - possibly in Asia - which would lead to successful teams being handed an automatic passport to the Carling Cup quarter-finals.
The ambitious idea is at an early stage but it is being viewed as a major step towards introducing the 39th-game concept.
The Premier League have already had success with their own Asia Cup tournament which featured Liverpool, Portsmouth and Fulham in Hong Kong in the summer of 2007. They would like to expand that to feature every Premier League club playing in a competition in groups of four teams in five different venues, probably across Asia, before the start of a season.