AP sources: UEFA to ask FIFA to scrap August dates
Posted Thursday, September 22, 2011 by YAHOO Sport
UEFA will ask FIFA to scrap the August dates for friendlies in football’s international calendar, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation.
The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity after a summit meeting Wednesday because an official announcement by UEFA President Michel Platini is not expected until Thursday.
Europe’s 53 national federations agreed to the proposal in a meeting to discuss preferred changes to the calendar, which dictates when clubs must release their players for international duty.
European clubs have pressed UEFA and FIFA to drop August internationals, describing them as “nonsense” matches which disrupt preparations for their season.
National team coaches, including France’s Laurent Blanc, have also spoken out against the games, which allow squads barely 48 hours for preparations.
UEFA members concluded a two-day strategy session Wednesday with the international calendar and structure of national team competitions top of their agenda.
However, the officials told The AP that federations want to maintain the number of days players must report to national teams each year.
UEFA will propose playing 18 matches, in nine double-header fixture blocks, over each two-year cycle of qualification matches for a World Cup or European Championship, the officials said.
FIFA is also consulting world football’s five other continental bodies before agreeing a calendar of international match dates from 2015-2018.
However, FIFA can choose to remove August slots from the current schedule before it expires in 2014.
Though the UEFA summit was designed as a think tank, the 53 countries issued a declaration Wednesday against Swiss club FC Sion.
Sion has used civil courts to challenge the legal authority of UEFA and FIFA after it was expelled from the Europa League.
UEFA’s members said “any member of the football family which refuses to accept the rules of the competition should not participate in it.”
They called on FIFA and Switzerland’s football federation “to urgently take concrete steps to uphold” world football’s rules.
Sion flouted FIFA statutes simply by seeking civil court judgments to be reinstated.
UEFA expelled Sion because it beat Scotland’s Celtic in the playoff round using players signed in breach of a FIFA transfer ban.
Sion and UEFA meet in a Swiss court next Tuesday, two days before Celtic is due to play its second group stage match.
AP Sports Writer Graham Dunbar contributed to this report.
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