Why can’t the Europa League be taken as seriously as the Champions League?
UEFA and the FA should seriously reconsider how the fixtures and travel arrangements are made because the longer this goes on the more we can expect, not just this season but every season, to cause serious and long term injuries for each player.
After beating Leeds on Sunday we had four days to prepare and travel for our Europa League fixture against Benfica, which due to the pandemic could not take place in Portugal and had to be switched to Italy.
Forward on 24 hours after the game and rather than our boys travelling back the same night like they would normally do, Arteta or whomever it was decided they would stay in Italy, train in the morning and then fly back, when I’m assuming they went home for the rest of the day and then turned up to training on Saturday to prepare for the game against Manchester City on Sunday.
Now I realise the pandemic is causing even more disruption than what a normal season would do but the whole Thursday, Sunday fixtures taking into consideration the travel arrangements, just are not working.
I don’t see why all Europa and Champions league fixtures cannot be played over the course of Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Why does Europa league have to take place on a Thursday? It is just as important a competition as the Champions League, otherwise teams wouldn’t fight so much to win it right?
So my question to UEFA and the FA is will you take into consideration players fitness and mental and physical ability each season especially after a pandemic as severe and powerful as this current one, and will you make changes to the rules of fixtures, kick of times and travel arrangements in order to ensure that players stay as healthy and physically fit for as long as they possibly can, otherwise the long term suffering implications may ruin the beautiful game in the long run! Gooners?
Shenel Osman