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Chelsea furious over English Premier League schedule change |
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Written by Martin Bishop
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Saturday, 29 March 2008 |
Chelsea is furious over a schedule change that has them playing their Premier League match at Everton in mid-April two days earlier for television. Chelsea is saying that the resulting schedule change could cost them the Soccer Betting Premier League title. Soccer Betting at SBG Global.
Chelsea plays Wigan on Monday, April 14th and now will have to play at Everton just three days later on the 17th rather than on Saturday, April 19th. Chelsea released a statement saying, "We believe the decision to hold the match on Thursday April 17 undermines the sporting integrity of the competition by giving our rivals for the Premier League title an unnecessary competitive advantage at a critical time of the season, with more recovery time from their previous match and preparation time for their next fixture when we have to play two games during the same period. Secondly there has been no consideration given to our fans who will be presented with serious travel, work and other issues."
 Chelsea has reacted poorly to the scheduling change but it is not all bad news for them. The resulting change would give Chelsea two extra days to prepare for their critical home match against Manchester United. That doesn’t seem to have eased the anger that Chelsea has about the schedule change though. "Football has benefited greatly from the backing of television and Chelsea as much as anyone else," the release added. "However, this decision is one step too far and we reserve all rights on our position."
The Premier League has defended their decision saying that "The compilation of the fixture list is a complex procedure which faces enormous pressure from international match and European competition dates, as well as the need to balance the important requirements of the police and our broadcasters. We are also required by the European Commission to televise 138 matches per season, which brings its own inevitable pressures. Under these difficult circumstances, this date was seen as the fairest that could be achieved."
Chelsea also made other news announcing they will play their first soccer match in China in July. They will face Chinese super league team Guangzhou Pharmaceutical on July 23 as part of their Premier League preseason tour. The game will be at the Olympic Stadium in Guangzhou. "We have a lot of support here (China) and now we can give our Chinese fans the opportunity to see us play," Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said. "Chinese football is developing at a rapid pace and Chelsea wants to play a role in that." Chelsea will also play against a Malaysia select team in Kuala Lumpur on July 29th.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 29 March 2008 )
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