The English Premier League (EPL) is rehashing proposals to play regular season games abroad as part of plans to extend the competition’s global reach and increase revenues for its clubs.

Plans for a “39th game” – an extra game added to the regular 38-game season played abroad – first surfaced in 2008 but was met with universal ridicule and criticism. Plans for the 39th game were officially buried in 2010.

The EPL is keen, however, to resurrect the idea in some form and it is believed that it is now looking at proposals for each club to play one game abroad.

The plans form part of the league’s strategy of maintaining its market leading position in markets such as Asia and Africa, where English football remains more popular than the Spanish La Liga, German Bundesliga and Italian Serie A.

When the EPL negotiated the latest round of broadcasting rights (from 2013 to 2016), it secured a deal worth £5.6bn – £2.1bn of which came from the sale of overseas rights.

There are only two countries in the world – Albania and North Korea – which do not currently have a rights agreement to show games from the EPL.

The global appeal of the EPL was demonstrated in the recent round of pre-season friendly games hosted in the US, where English teams played in front of packed stadiums. A game between Manchester United and Real Madrid alone attracted 109,318 fans to the Michigan Stadium – with an overwhelming majority of spectators donning Man United’s traditional red colours.

Playing regular season games abroad is seen as a marketing tool and a way to grow interest in the EPL – much like the US-based professional leagues have done over the past 15 years.

The National Football League (NFL) regularly hosts games at London’s Wembley stadium, which has partly been attributed to a growing interest in NFL among British sports fans.

Other leagues to have staged regular-season games outside the US include the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Basketball Association (NBA).