Fabio Capello Gains Extra Week For England, FA Strikes Deal With Premier League

The Premier League has confirmed that the 2009-2010 season will finish one week earlier than anticipated after Englandmanager Fabio Capello pleaded for the maximum possible time to prepare his team for the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

England are currently well on track to qualify for the final tournament next summer having begun their qualification group with maximum points from four games, a feat matched only by European Champions Spain, coincidentally England’s conquerors last Wednesday.

Under FIFA guidelines domestic leagues must currently finish one month before the World Cup begins but Capello has convinced the chairmen of Premier League clubs to grant him an extra week. This has been achieved by scheduling double-header fixtures over the August bank holiday period.

Therefore, for the first time Premier League teams will play on Saturday 29th August and then again only two days later on the bank holiday Monday. This was deemed preferable to the only other way of freeing up the extra week which would have meant starting the season a week earlier than previously scheduled.

However, the double-header in August was chosen and the 2009-2010 season will kick off on Saturday 15th August.

Such a decision is not without precedent as the FA under the appeal from Sven Goran Eriksson was able to negotiate such a deal three years ago ahead of the World Cup in Germany, granting the Swede an extra week to prepare his players.

Therefore, it is not unsurprising that the FA have been able to forge a similar agreement for Capello, the Italian certainly being held in higher respect by the chairmen of the Premier League clubs than Eriksson.

Nonetheless the solution may prove far from ideal for Capello as the August double header will mean two games in extremely close proximity for his players in the week before they are scheduled to play first Slovenia in a friendly and then Croatia in a crucial return qualifier on the Wednesday night.

Capello favoured organising both Croatia games as early in the season as possible due to his belief that England’s players are in their best condition at this time of the year.

However, whilst no player should be tired by the end of August the extra game with such a small gap between fixtures will no doubt increase the opportunity for injuries to occur, something the Italian could really do without.