The first ever-competitive transatlantic game

Tomorrow history will be made with the first ever-competitive transatlantic game when Toronto Wolfpack face Oxford RLFC. This is not a friendly or some tournament but a Kingstone Press League 1 fixture. This will be the Wolfpacks first home game having played five league games in England. They are currently sharing top of the league.

They are based in England and themselves will have to fly into Toronto and will need to return to their North of England base for a Friday fixture against Newcastle Thunder.

With Rugby League, way down the radar in Canada the owners of the Wolfpack are hoping to attract a crowd of 10,000 with curiosity of the sport hopefully attracting the sports mad Toronto public. They also need to get the local media on-board the game will be shown live in Canada.

There opponents flew out yesterday which will be the normal day for all teams to fly and make the 3,500 mile journey ahead of Saturday’s fixture. The trip to North America is fully paid for by their hosts a similar deal to that provided last season by French side Toulouse Olympique, who now play in the Championship.

In football Guernsey FC from the Channel Islands who play in Isthmian League Division One South, have the same deal paying the expenses of visiting teams. Could some rich executive with money burning in his pocket consider the same in football? At the moment Americans, Chinese, Far and Middle East money men are beating the doors down of Premiership and English league teams looking for a club the latest being Southampton.

The cost of buying a Premier League club is more than 100million and taking on any debts the whole venture could come at a hefty cost. However, could someone decide to form a new club in some non-league division and fight their way through the divisions? It could be cheaper an buying into the Premier League and to be honest, more fun.

The world is getting ever-smaller time wise with planes flying longer like now you can fly Australia to UK in 24 hours direct and North America is closer. So like Guernsey FC being based outside the UK could it be a problem if some rich moneyman had the same idea but from a bit further afield?

The precedent has been set by Guernsey so would The Football Association give any credence to someone coming up with such a plan.

A problem would come if someone try to buy a club like Notts County recently put up for sale and wanted to move them to the USA. First, there is no way I believe the FA would allow it out of principle and no way would fans stand for it. There would be protest throughout football remember the Wimbledon debacle and the never-ending tale still going on to this day.