Well Chelts......

Various national newspapers are reporting today that the Football Association has lined up a home England friendly against Italy for August 15th, but it won?t be played at Wembley.
Due to restrictions around the use of Olympic Games venues before and after London 2012, Wembley will be unavailable to England at the time the proposed fixture against the Azzurri has been scheduled. It?d be interesting to know how that?s come about, because the FA would seem to be guilty of either oversight or greed. The game will be played at BSC Young Boys? Stade de Suisse in Bern.
If the Olympics restrictions have taken them by surprise, there would be other solutions to consider. Why not play the game in Birmingham, for example? Or even in Turin? It is a friendly after all, and if the game was pencilled in for Wembley then it will be moving regardless.
Of course, it?s also possible that the match was always intended to be played overseas. And despite the bubbling furore on Twitter, England have played friendlies on neutral soil in the past. As Mirror Sport notes, England have played Argentina (also in Switzerland, in 2005) and Brazil (in Qatar in 2009) in countries other than those directly competing on the day. As something of a traditionalist I didn?t like it then, and I don?t like it now. It?s all about money.
Either way, the FA doesn?t come out of this well. While I am personally a great believer in having a national stadium (albeit not in London), the touring of England around various grounds around the country while Wembley was being rebuilt would seem to have been an almost unqualified success. And although it?s important to note that more than one of England?s grounds are in use for the unabashed joyfulness that is the Olympics (yawn), there?s no good reason to take this fixture to Switzerland.
Everybody knows that there is a requirement to bring in the revenue necessary to cover the huge investment put into Wembley?s rebuild, but there has to be a balance with the interests of supporters. The Italy game is an anomaly, and moving it to another stadium because of Wembley?s lack of availability would not detract from the policy that has even seen FA Cup semi-finals played at Wembley in order to recover costs. It?s a one-off ? that?s why the FA is playing it overseas, but it?s also why I think it could be played elsewhere in England.
Not that we should even be playing friendlies in August, in my opinion, but that?s another post altogether.

Posted By: DrDublin, Aug 15, 18:12:17