Australian veto completes worldwide block on Scudamore's 39th game plan

Australia has joined the international chorus of countries who have declared their opposition to Premier League plans to stage their 39th game on foreign soil.

The chairman of Football Federation Australia, Frank Lowy, said that he saw no great benefit to Australia in hosting any Premier League matches and reiterated that his federation's priorities were with the continuing development of their domestic A-League.

The move, following similar rejections from the United States Soccer Federation and the Asian Football Confederation, leaves Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore with nowhere to go in staging the "international round".

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Last Friday Scudamore revealed that the 20 Premier League clubs had agreed in principle to play an extra 10 fixtures every January from the 2010-11 season onwards, extending the domestic campaign to 39 games.

The six cities initially mooted as potential hosts - Miami, Sydney, Hongkong, Shanghai, Bangkok and Beijing - all fall within the jurisdiction of football bodies who have now declared their opposition to the plan.

Lowy added: "We said when this issue first arose last week that FFA's overwhelming priority is to promote the Hyundai A-League and to continue to invest in, and grow, the game in Australia. That remains our view."

"The bottom line is, FFA rejects the notion of another country playing a round of their domestic competition in Australia and intruding on the development of the Hyundai A-League and the game in Australia," he said.

Chief executive Ben Buckley backed Lowy but admitted FFA are still keen to stage exhibition matches in Australia involving teams from Europe.

"However, our overriding objective is to build equity in the Hyundai A-League and everything we do is assessed against that objective," said Buckley.