FA Eyeing Doha For England Friendly
The Football Association is reportedly reviewing the potential for a lucrative England friendly fixture against Brazil in the Qatar capital of Doha during November – a move that would again raise the issue of player burn-out.
Although England’s qualification for the 2010 World Cup yet to be confirmed, media reports suggest that a lucrative match against Brazil has been discussed, and would be played between 14th and 18th November.
Those dates would coincide with the World Cup qualifying play-off matches for second-placed teams – Fabio Capello’s side could win Group 6 in their next game, Croatia at Wembley on 9th September.
That would leave effectively ‘dead rubber’ qualifying games against Ukraine and Belarus during October, but the plan to add another match to an already crowded calendar is likely to cause issues with the Premier League over fixture congestion.
England are to play friendlies against Holland in August and Slovenia during September, and if the meeting with Brazil goes ahead, the number of games for the season would move into double figures.
The prospective match would be a lucrative money-earner for The FA if past examples are anything to go by – in 2008 Manchester United were paid in excess of £1m to play a friendly in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
