Manchester United Coach Calls International Friendlies a "waste of time"

According to this article from CNN International, Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson expressed his anger at Scotland's national team coach George Burley for his treatment of Manchester United midfielder Darren Fletcher by saying that international friendlies, in general, are a "waste of time."

Darren Fletcher, one of Scotland's best players, was called up by Scottish coach George Burley to play in their friendly against Croatia on Wednesday, which ended in a 1-1 tie. Being that the match was only a friendly, clubs such as Manchester United, according to UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) rules, do not have to release their players to play in matches for their national teams. Despite this, Ferguson gave him permission.

Now, Manchester United is without Fletcher for the next six weeks due to a knee liagament injury that occured while playing in this friendly.

The Manchester United coach commented "it is a bad blow losing Darren and again shows the futility of playing friendly games. It is crazy...Supporters will stop going anyway, given the kind of money they are paying and the kind of traveling they have to do."

Ferguson claims that the Scottish coach was at fault for the injury because it looked as if Burley intended him to play the entire 90 minutes if he had not been injured. He "should have played only 45 minutes, 60 minutes at most," added Ferguson, aiming his anger at Burley.

Even though Fletcher was being somewhat mistreated beign that he went to Scotland with a bad chest cold (according to Ferguson), Ferguson had no right to blame this incident at Burley at all since he could have kept him from going to Scotland to play the game in the first place being that it was only a friendly match. Ferguson also mentioned that Fletcher had to miss Manchester United's match against Liverpool because of his leaving for Scotland. It seems to me that Ferguson would have used Fletcher for this game despite the chest cold. However, Manchester United seems to be doing quite well without Fletcher defeating Liverpool 3-0 in the game he missed on Sunday. It is Manchester United after all-- one of the best soccer clubs in the world and second in the English Premier League under Arsenal.

In regards to friendlies, Ferguson seems to miss the point. He states that fans will stop going to these friendlies due to expensive tickets and too much travelling (as quoted above). He seems to equate friendlies to meaningless pre-season games that are often played in American sports. This, however, is not the case. Friendly matches are important to national teams because it shows how the teams are progressing during periods when there are no major tournament. Results from these friendlies are also used by FIFA in their monthly rankings as well. Ferguson is also mistaken when it comes to fans attending games such as these. Patriotic fans will always attend games in which their nation is playing in no matter where they play and if the match is important or not.

In the case of Croatia, this friendly was used as a warm-up for this summer's Euro 2008 finals. A major part of friendlies is to make sure the teams can play well together and to experiment with new players. Ferguson seems to understand that a pre-tournament type warm up is necessary for players and their national teams but has not yet come up with an alternative method. He has suggested that training camps can be used instead of friendly matches. This, however, defeats the purpose since national teams would not be playing other teams in training camps and therefore will not come up with any kind of results.

Sorry, Mr. Ferguson, I don't think friendlies will disappear any time soon, but you can do without Fletcher for a few weeks, right (and I wouldn't talk-- the only matches that your precious national team has to play until World Cup qualifying are friendlies. No Euro for the English, remember!). Your fellow English Premier League rival Arsenal is going to be without Eduardo da Silva (a major blow to Croatia I must add) for almost a full year!! I think Manchester United will do just fine without Fletcher.

See this article from Fox Soccer Channel for more criticism from Ferguson regarding this incident.