Advertisement
Club v Country

Clubs want Fifa review of international scheduling

Not-so-new development as clubs want less friendlies.

FIFA HAS BEEN called upon to review its scheduling of international friendlies.

Two hundred of Europe’s leading clubs, through their representative organisation the European Clubs Association (ECA), have asked for talks with Fifa about scheduling.

Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge of Bayern Munich called the recent August friendlies “a disgrace” and threatened Fifa with further intervention in friendlies.

“We will intervene more and more in the international match calendar. Some countries are already playing their third series of internationals since the World Cup. We need deep discussions to find a solution. Federations like Fifa need to recognise that the players are our employees and we have to be involved in these kinds of discussions.”

The ECA replaced the influential G14 Group and the European Club Forum in 2008 as the representative group for European clubs.

Members are from all national associations within Uefa and are steered by a fifteen-member Executive Board, which includes Chelsea non-executive director Peter Kenyon and his Manchester United chief executive David Gill.