Jose Mourinho has joined Arsène Wenger and Frank Lampard in warning that the fixture schedule is hurting English clubs in Europe and highlighted how Galatasaray will have an extra day to prepare for Tuesday’s Champions League match against Chelsea. Didier Drogba’s Galatasaray played on Friday night in the Turkish League against Karabukspor while Mourinho’s Chelsea have been put back to an evening kick-off against Aston Villa on Saturday so that their match can be shown live on television. Arsenal were in the same position of having to play their Champions League first leg against Bayern Munich with a day’s less rest, as did Manchester City against Barcelona on Wednesday. Having returned from Spain on Thursday morning, City have a 12.45pm kick-off on Saturday for television. Mourinho has also worked in Portugal, Spain and Italy and he says that every other European league tries to help its clubs. Like Wenger, he now believes that fixtures should be harmonised before Champions League matches. I think this would be vital for the success of English teams in the competition, I dont agree with Jose on much things but this is true. Every other club gets help with preparation and winning the Champions League with one of your clubs is good for the country who it is so I dont understand why the Premier League is one of the only leagues not to help other teams prepare for UCL fixtures. I think we could have done better in recent years, maybe even in this years competition if the Premier League was more supportive like nations like Spain and Turkey are. - Frapp
Posted on: Sat, 15 Mar 2014 20:31:57 +0000