Comments on: FIFA FIXED FRIENDLY MATCH DATES

By: Villa

Villa — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:08:54 +0000

Wenger always puts the blame on external forces. Let’s wait and hear what excuse he will give tomorrow if Arsenal lose to Man City.

By: sscouser

sscouser — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:02:13 +0000

Exactly!

By: Pseudinho

Pseudinho — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:30:24 +0000

I know the Aussies had all there top players from the Premier League. They had matches on these dates so they could get all the qualifying done in time. But on a side note FIFA does need to get rid of the single date fixed match days. I think if your gonna take an international break do the usual Saturday-Wednesday break. This is gonna happen again in February and the U.S. only had a few of their European players in their squad because they already qualified for the next round of CONCACAF qualifying, but come February that won’t be the case and I’m sure all their regulars will be in the squad. And the only one that’s a regular that’s not on a European club is Landon Donovan who is signing with Bayern Munchen on a loan deal in January. All this could be resolved with taking those single dates out and making one of them a regular international break.

By: Scouser

Scouser — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:35:07 +0000

You are right. There were some World Cup Qualification games on November 19,2008

Czech Republic vs San Marino (WC Qualification, EUFA)
Bahrain vs Australia (WC Qualification, AFC)
Qatar vs Japan (WC Qualification, AFC)
Saudi Arabia vs South Korea (WC Qualification, AFC)
http://livescore.goal.com/?language=en

I wonder why these matches were played on the FIFA fixed date for friendlies. I just hope the Football Associations concerned didn’t have a problem with clubs releasing players for the matches (4 days including the day of the match)

By: Pseudinho

Pseudinho — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:42:37 +0000

Qualifying matches took place in AFC, CONCACAF, and even UEFA as I know the Czech Republic had a match.

By: Scouser

Scouser — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:32:46 +0000

Pseudinho, you may be right that November 19 wasn’t just for friendlies. However, please note that it is listed as a “Fixed Date for friendly matches” on FIFA calender
http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/calendar/events.html

As for your argument that “friendlies aren’t meaningless as they have to give managers some times to see how his players gel and play with one another in a competitive environment” I think I explained that already.
http://malawi.worldcupblog.org/team-news/will-friendly-matches-on-november-19-make-a-difference.html

In which regions were qualifying matches taking place?

By: Pseudinho

Pseudinho — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:58:33 +0000

Well that date wasn’t just for friendlies. In several regions qualifying matches were taking place. Also friendlies aren’t meaningless as they have to give managers some times to see how his players gel and play with one another in a competitive environment. Arsenal is getting compensated for Walcott and if clubs hate these friendlies they can not have players of international caliber and not lose their players to international duties at all. All these clubs know going in that they have players of international caliber and that they may have to leave the club a few days for international matches. This isn’t something that just came around and the clubs didn’t know about. This has been around for years so the griping by clubs is just wasteless moaning.