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England manager Roy Hodgson in plea for TV scheduling help
England boss Roy Hodgson wants television companies to stop asking Premier League's top teams to play on the Sunday before an international.
Because affected players need time to recover, Hodgson thinks such scheduling limits his amount of preparation time.
England's Friday fixtures
- England v San Marino (World Cup qualifier) 12 October
- San Marino v England (World Cup qualifier) 22 March
- England v Moldova (World Cup qualifier) 6 September 2013
- England v Montenegro (World Cup qualifier) 11 October 2013
Hodgson also called for a winter break, saying it would give the English season a more "logical" schedule.
"It would be lovely to think that one day we could all get together and say 'England is important'," he said.
Four of England's eight remaining World Cup qualifiers are scheduled to be played on Friday evenings.
Hodgson's training time with his players is already in short supply and he feels it is limited further when his main players are involved in Sunday's fixtures.
He cited the example of Manchester United's recent televised 16:00 BST clash at Southampton, ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine, as unhelpful scheduling.
Speaking in a question-and-answer session, broadcast on the Football Association's website, he added: "It would be nice if, when we're playing on Friday, the top teams played on Saturday and not Sunday.
"Then on Monday we could do a bit of work and on Tuesday do some serious work.
"But every time, the top clubs have played on Sunday and some at five o'clock on Sunday. If they're from Manchester and they've played in Southampton, they get back late at night then have to come down again."
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Comment number 200.
Mark21st September 2012 - 12:34
Regarding England and TV, first essential step is getting coverage back to the BBC away from those incompetant amateurs and irritating ad breaks on ITV!
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Comment number 199.
Through_My_Eyes21st September 2012 - 10:50
Two things - it's the same for all nations such as the spanish play the majoriy of games on a sunday, like this would make any difference to a technically inept england team!
Secondly - maybe be an excuse as to why his captain can't last 90mins anymore, thats age im afraid games every three days at gerrards age are difficult!
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Comment number 198.
jdgmedia21st September 2012 - 10:16
@196 - the international schedule was moved to Friday's to accommodate the Tuesday international games the following week. The midweek games were previously on Wednesday, but moving them back to Tuesday means players can get back to their clubs earlier, something that was requested by the clubs.
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Comment number 197.
blue20821st September 2012 - 10:05
This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 196.
userds505021st September 2012 - 8:44
So Hodgon wants all club matches played on the Saturday to give the players an extra days rest. So he wants the Premiership clubs to for go tv revenues and to make allowances for the benefit of the International team. So why then do England now play all their Saturday fixtures 24 hours earlier on the Friday night? Bigger TV audience. You couldn't make it up.
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Comments 5 of 200