Manchester United Football Club News

• Nickname:Red Devils
• Founded:1878
• Manager:Sir Alex Ferguson

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Intrusive friendly annoys Fergie

30 Oct 2009 - 08:27:08

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Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has voiced his displeasure at the scheduling of next month's England's friendly international against Brazil in Doha.

The veteran Scot is happy for his England players to represent their country in competitive matches but is unwilling to let them feature in friendlies, particularly when they are played so far away.

Fabio Capello's team will travel 6,500 miles to play Brazil in Qatar on November 14 with Ferguson unhappy about "the intrusion of a friendly game in some unknown country".

He went on to say: "You want the players to play in the important international games, it's important to them and I want them to play. It's the friendly matches that are the problem.

"It's a coach's nightmare, especially if you're in the middle of a European campaign and going for cups and titles.

"You have all these fixtures and you have the intrusion of a friendly game in some unknown country, so that is a definite thorn in everyone's flesh.

"All international managers have their jobs to do and we support that, particularly when it comes to the issues of competitive games, ie the European Championships or the World Cup.

"It's very important that these players play for their countries.

"But friendly games are a different matter. I don't think that anyone agrees with them if you're a football coach, a league coach, whereas international managers have a situation that they find themselves in.

"I think that some of them actually could do without the friendly games themselves, but the FAs from every country warn them that sometimes it's a nice day for them, a nice trip for them, a sunny day, and in some cases it creates good revenue for them. So you can understand it."