EPL is set to sail, says Swansea chief

English Premier League matches will be staged overseas within two years, according to claims reported on Wednesday to have been made by Swansea City chairman Huw Jenkins.

There has long been a view within English soccer that the huge global popularity of the Premier League, particularly in the Far East and United States - where Manchester United recently drew huge crowds on its preseason tour - could be exploited by staging matches abroad.

However, plans for an overseas '39th game' were dropped in 2008 following opposition from supporters' groups and FIFA and UEFA, soccer's global and European governing bodies respectively, who were concerned about the impact of such a move upon domestic leagues.