SOCCER chief Ben Buckley has hit out at Melbourne Victory over its continual complaints about a fixture pile-up and told the club's leaders to stop whingeing and get on with their stuttering Asian Champions League campaign.
The Australian game's most senior executive said Victory's carping about being hard done by did not do it any favours and ignored the fact that games had already been shifted to accommodate its demands in the early phase of the A-League finals.
''They should stop complaining about it and just play the games,'' Buckley said.
''The rules and regulations for the Asian Champions League are set well in advance, the timetable is drawn up by the Asian Football Confederation and everyone knows when the matches are.
''There are 46 leagues in the AFC and things have to be done to accommodate all those leagues and all the participating clubs. They can't make exceptions for one team.
''We already moved the first leg of the A-League major semi-final for Victory, allowing them to play Sydney on the Thursday night [February 18] so they could travel to China for their first ACL game.
''That gave them a four-day break after playing Sydney on the previous Sunday in the last game of the home and away season.
''We would have given them a five-day break but their home ground [Etihad Stadium] was not available on the Friday.
''Teams from other countries seem to be able to juggle their timetables. We know it is difficult and not ideal, but that is the situation.''
Both Victory coach Ernie Merrick and football operations boss Gary Cole have been critical of the scheduling.
source: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/soccer/victory-told-to-stop-whingeing-over-draw-20100311-q1js.html
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