Posts Tagged ‘fixture’
John Toshack to sound out Wales team over venue for England qualifier
• Millennium Stadium may be shunned in favour of smaller venue
• Toshack predicts nations will struggle to agree fixture dates
The Wales manager, John Toshack, will consult his players before deciding whether to play their home Euro 2012 qualifier with England in the Millennium Stadium or a smaller and more intimidating ground.
Wales are in the same group as Fabio Capello’s side in addition to Switzerland, Montenegro and Bulgaria. Holding the match at the Millennium Stadium, with its capacity of nearly 75,000, would mean more revenue and less headaches in terms of security.
Toshack, however, admits other options to consider are the new Cardiff City Stadium (capacity 27,000) and Swansea’s Liberty complex (22,000) where they host Sweden in a friendly on 3 March.
Toshack said: “Things have changed a bit recently for us. We have got two other stadiums now. We were well pleased with the treatment we got from the Cardiff people when we played Scotland there recently.
“Swansea have a new stadium as well and we have been treated well there and play Sweden there shortly. You have to consider the atmosphere factor as well. It is early days yet. We have a fixture meeting on 15 March when it will be decided what dates we play but you don’t have to announce the venue until 90 days before a fixture.
“I will be interested to get the players’ views on that subject as well so we have got a little bit of time to decide.”
Toshack concedes England will be favourites to qualify but believes the battle for second spot is wide open. “Looking at our group, I think it is the most wide open of all of them. England will be clear favourites but I think the other four nations are all in contention.
“Between the four of us there is not a great deal to choose at all. It is difficult for anyone to predict the positions the teams will finish in. There are no ‘gimme’ fixtures for anyone. England are favourites but none of the teams are superpowers.”
Toshack locked horns with Capello just once when rival managers in Spain during the 1990s, but believes he can lead England to a successful World Cup.
“I sat next to Capello on the plane on the way over for the draw yesterday and we had a good two and a half hour conversation. On the way back he sat at the back, I sat at the front and we never said a word.
“Seriously, I am sure there will be an awful lot of interest in the game and I can see them having a good World Cup as well. Hopefully they will come back with 10 injuries and we can pick them off in September. You never know. For our players, the prospect of playing England at Wembley is a terrific incentive. If our young players get more game time in, and progress as we think they are capable of, it will be great.”
Toshack’s main concern is that Wales have more luck with injuries than in their World Cup qualifying campaign. “When you look at us and England, we have 11 players who play in the Premier League and two of them are goalkeepers. You can see the difficulties we have with four or five injuries. We need a bit of good fortune on the injury front which we never had the last time around.
“If we make mistakes or pick the wrong team, or concede late on, that’s down to us, but we would just hope to have our best players available.”
Toshack believes it will be more difficult for teams to come to an agreement over when to stage fixtures given the new guidelines which allow weekend games to be played on Friday or Saturday and all midweek fixtures on Tuesdays.
“I can see that being difficult this time around for all the groups. I can see a lot of these meetings to decide the fixtures being thrown out and it all going to Uefa to decide. A lot of countries are not accustomed to playing on Friday evening and won’t want Saturday-Tuesday either.
“In this country, our players are accustomed to playing Saturday-Tuesdays so I can see fixture meetings this time around having a lot of problems and not being easy to come to an agreement.”
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Scotland committed to reviving England fixture after gap of a decade
• SFA chief executive wants game revived ‘in near future’
• ‘Auld Enemy’ friendly close to being organised two years ago
Gordon Smith, the Scottish Football Association’s chief executive, said his body remained fully committed to the first Scotland v England international for more than a decade. The Scotland secretary, Jim Murphy, told MPs this afternoon he had spoken to the SFA about the return of the fixture, adding: “Bring it on.”
Smith, who has long championed the return of the fixture, said: “There has long been a debate on the viability of restoring the historic Auld Enemy fixture against England but many circumstances have prohibited this, not least available dates on an already congested domestic and international fixture schedule.
“It is my wish that the game can be revived in some form in the near future and, indeed, we came close to reaching agreement with the Football Association in England to organise a friendly match two years ago. Nothing has changed in that regard since then but we are, as always, willing to engage in open dialogue with our English counterparts.
“The Scottish FA has always been receptive to new ideas, culminating in the conception of the Four Nations tournament – incorporating Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland – which is scheduled to commence next year.”
Scotland’s last meetings with England came in the form of a play-off for Euro 2000. Don Hutchison’s goal won the final match, at Wembley, for the visitors, but England advanced to the tournament due to a 2-0 victory at Hampden Park in the first leg.
