Conte Slams FA over congested ties

PHOTO: Chelsea Coach in an argument with referee Michael Oliver at a past match

Chelsea boss Antonio Conte has criticized English Football Association for coming up with tight fixtures complicating the quest of English players to compete in the Uefa Champions League. While addressing the media at Baku in Azerbaijan, ahead of Chelsea’s second leg tie with Qarabag, the Italian trainer slammed the English soccer management for being insensitive and coming up with congested fixtures leaving no time for rest.

British media report that Conte has attributed shoddy performance of English teams in the regional competition to poor planning on the calendar. A case that Conte points is where the Blues traveled to Baku, Azerbaijan 2,500 miles away where they landed at 8PM local time. They trained on Tuesday and are expected to lock horns with Qarabag on Wednesday at 5pm UK time.

Blues will arrive in London on Thursday dawn and will only have a day to train. They will then play Liverpool on Saturday at 5Pm at Anfield.  Conte believes that Liverpool will have an upper hand in the fixture since they have an extra day of rest and preparation, while his side will only rest for one day.

He adds that similar fixture pile-up may have cost his side three points after they played Atletico Madrid away on Wednesday and went ahead to host league leaders Manchester City on Saturday, after the latter had had an extra day to rest and prepare.

“I'm talking for all the teams who are playing in the Champions League, not just for Chelsea…For a long time, there isn't an English team playing a final in the Champions League,” Conte paused angrily while addressing the press.

Meanwhile, he has challenged his players grab a win over Qarabag to ease the pressure so ythat they can focus on other fixtures.

Chelsea are the last English team to have won the prestigious Uefa Champions League award in 2012. Over the past 5 years, the farthest an English side has reached in the tournament are semifinals.