Blatter defends FIFA position on friendlies
Source: Agencies |
August 12, 2010, Thursday
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CLUBS angry at the timing of international friendly matches should aim their frustrations at the national associations who arrange them and not FIFA, the organization's president Sepp Blatter said yesterday.
More than 50 international friendly matches were to take place across the world later yesterday, an official FIFA match day, just when many European league seasons are starting and their Asia counterparts resume after the World Cup.
"There are two dates in the year for friendly matches but it means you do not have to use these dates," Blatter told reporters in Singapore.
"If you want to play a friendly match then bring your second or third team, nobody tells you to promote the best players. Don't make a lot of noise about that (the timing) by saying that FIFA is silly... it is not FIFA."
Spanish champion Barcelona led the complaints of this week's international matches with its sporting director complaining after seven of his team's players were named for a friendly in Mexico three days before the first leg of the Super Cup.
Elsewhere in Europe, preparations were disrupted in England, where the Premier League starts on Saturday, and in Netherlands and France, where their championships began last weekend.
Blatter said that the current FIFA calendar was compiled by Michel Platini eight years ago, before he became UEFA president. "He was a player and he was a coach and now he is president of the confederation," Blatter said.
Blatter, 74, said that the FIFA match day calendar was frequently discussed for ways of improvement but that understanding and solidarity was required by national associations and clubs.
Meanwhile, FIFA has launched an investigation into allegations that the North Korean World Cup coach and players were reprimanded by the government after their early exit from World Cup.
Last month, Radio Free Asia said that the North Korean squad, apart from two foreign-based players, were subjected to "harsh ideological criticism" after it lost all three matches and conceded the most amount of goals by a team at the World Cup.
"We sent a letter to the football federation to tell us about their election of a new president and to find out if the allegations made by the media that the coach and some players were condemned and punished are true," Blatter said. "We are doing this as a first step and we will see how they answer."
More than 50 international friendly matches were to take place across the world later yesterday, an official FIFA match day, just when many European league seasons are starting and their Asia counterparts resume after the World Cup.
"There are two dates in the year for friendly matches but it means you do not have to use these dates," Blatter told reporters in Singapore.
"If you want to play a friendly match then bring your second or third team, nobody tells you to promote the best players. Don't make a lot of noise about that (the timing) by saying that FIFA is silly... it is not FIFA."
Spanish champion Barcelona led the complaints of this week's international matches with its sporting director complaining after seven of his team's players were named for a friendly in Mexico three days before the first leg of the Super Cup.
Elsewhere in Europe, preparations were disrupted in England, where the Premier League starts on Saturday, and in Netherlands and France, where their championships began last weekend.
Blatter said that the current FIFA calendar was compiled by Michel Platini eight years ago, before he became UEFA president. "He was a player and he was a coach and now he is president of the confederation," Blatter said.
Blatter, 74, said that the FIFA match day calendar was frequently discussed for ways of improvement but that understanding and solidarity was required by national associations and clubs.
Meanwhile, FIFA has launched an investigation into allegations that the North Korean World Cup coach and players were reprimanded by the government after their early exit from World Cup.
Last month, Radio Free Asia said that the North Korean squad, apart from two foreign-based players, were subjected to "harsh ideological criticism" after it lost all three matches and conceded the most amount of goals by a team at the World Cup.
"We sent a letter to the football federation to tell us about their election of a new president and to find out if the allegations made by the media that the coach and some players were condemned and punished are true," Blatter said. "We are doing this as a first step and we will see how they answer."
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