Ferguson In Fixtures Plea

Published: 03 Apr 2009 - 22:09:00

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Sir Alex Ferguson has urged someone to step in and solve the fixture chaos that will force Manchester United to play two games in little more than 48 hours. United's Premier League encounter with Aston Villa will take place at Old Trafford on Sunday, with a 4pm kick-off, even though the Red Devils tackle FC Porto in the Champions League quarter-final next Tuesday. Ferguson did have an option to move the game back. But as Sky TV have the rights to show it live, the only available timeslot on Saturday was 12.45pm. As that would not even give some of his players time to have one training session following this week's World Cup matches, Ferguson decided a Sunday-Tuesday turnaround was the lesser of two evils. "Somebody has to look at this because the Premier League are not doing it," he said. "No club should be playing on a Saturday lunchtime after a European tie or internationals. It is crazy, absolutely crazy." Given Wayne Rooney is suspended and Dimitar Berbatov has been ruled out for another fortnight - potentially ruling him out of both legs of the Porto clash, plus the trip to Sunderland on Easter Saturday - after picking up an ankle injury at Fulham immediately before the international break, Ferguson has made a wise decision. His only available striker is Carlos Tevez but, having suffered a six-goal mauling with Argentina in Bolivia on Wednesday, he only arrived back in Manchester from South America at 4pm on Friday. "I think he is coming back from Mars," joked Ferguson. "With Dimitar out and Wayne suspended hopefully Carlos will be okay. That will give us one striker, then we will have to choose another."