Too many fixtures means Premiership clubs losing out

SVEN-Goran Eriksson warned that Premiership clubs will continue to undermine their own chances of winning the Champions League until they reduce the fixture congestion that has robbed him of eight England players.

Eriksson believes that the record of just one appearance by an English club in a Champions League or European Cup final for 18 years Manchester United in 1999 is set to continue without a major overhaul.

"If we don't start to think about it now, it will be another 18 years," he warned.

While Eriksson insists Premiership clubs are good enough to feature in the final every other season, he declared the fixture chaos is simply too great a handicap for them to overcome.

"I am sure that the only reason why you don't have a team from England in the final every other year is that we play too much football in too short a time," he said.

"When you come to March or April then players at Arsenal and Manchester United are too tired as they are playing too many difficult games in too short a period of time. That is bad for the Premier League clubs and bad for the national team at the end of the season.

"No one can convince me that Arsenal and Manchester United are any worse than AC Milan or Juventus. No chance. I am absolutely sure of that and I have managed in Italy for several years. The reason they were not in the final was down to the amount of football they had played. The risk of injury is also much bigger in England than in other countries."

Fixture congestion has potentially contributed to the injury overload now disrupting Eriksson's plans for the Euro 2004 qualifier against Slovakia on June 11.

For the England coach is already set to start that game with at most five of the line-up selected against Turkey just two months earlier. Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Gary Neville and Nicky Butt are all injured, while David Beckham is suspended and Wayne Bridge is set to be replaced by Ashley Cole.

That leaves Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Paul Scholes, David James and, possibly, Wayne Rooney, who is hoping to keep his place ahead of Emile Heskey for tonight's friendly against Serbia and Montenegro.

The England coach will look to Matthew Upson in central defence alongside Gareth Southgate, while Owen Hargreaves and Frank Lampard look set to join Gerrard and Scholes in midfield.

Hargreaves only joined the squad today after playing for 90 minutes in the German cup final but is the ideal candidate to fill the anchor role in midfield and release Gerrard out to the right flank.

Trevor Sinclair has, meanwhile, become the latest injury worry as what initially appeared to be a dead leg now seems to be a muscle problem.

The fitness problems are clearly frustrating him, just as they bedevilled his predecessors, with Wes Brown, Jonathan Woodgate, Kieron Dyer and Danny Murphy also out injured.

"We have eight players out and nine if you count David Beckham as well. There must be a reason for that, while Italy have just one player out, Christian Vieri," observed Eriksson.

While reducing the size of the Premiership or getting rid of the Worthington Cup are two potential answers, Eriksson believes that the season should be lengthened, with a winter break in the middle.

"In a non-World Cup year, I can't see any reason why the league was finished on May 11. The Italian and German cup finals took place this Saturday," he added.

"We could have gone on playing all May as it's a crazy situation to have to keep players fit for one month after the league finishes. "But it's historical, just like you have to play at Christmas and New Year as you have always done it.

"I'm also sure we are the only country in Europe with the same team playing games on Saturdays and Mondays. That makes the risk of injury much bigger.

"We put everything in from the middle of August to the middle of May and have two cups. You have no time to recover between games and regain your fitness level."

Club tours merely add to the problem, given that the likes of Manchester United will be off to the United States this summer, but Eriksson is realistic about that issue.

"Whether I'm happy or not, they're a fact of life and part of the business of football as there's a lot of money in them," he admitted.