Alex Ferguson backs call for reduced international fixtures

By Danielle Joynson, Staff Reporter | 09 September 2011

Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson believes that international matches should be reduced to stop clogging up the football season.

Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson has become the latest manager to back the idea that international games should be reduced during the football calendar.

The 69-year-old, along with Queens Park Rangers boss Neil Warnock, believes that international friendlies are clogging up the schedule.

"In terms of the number of games, we have always said there were too many internationals," Sky Sports News quotes Ferguson as saying. "For a club side, definitely, we have all complained about that.

"But there is not just the issue of internationals, there is also the calendar. There is also a conflict of interest there.”

The Red Devils boss thinks that competitions such as the Copa America and African Cup of Nations pose an inconvenient problem.

"Some clubs lose three or four players for five weeks in January,” he added. "And with the Copa America played in the summer, when those players come back to you they have missed a bit in terms of doing the pre-season work.

"It is a lot more difficult to handle. You have to gauge how many games they have had and the kind of temperatures they were playing in before you know when you can give them a rest."

The European Clubs' Association have called for international fixtures to be reduced to six a year as opposed to the current 11 games a season.