Gareth Southgate asked about Newcastle United – Brings up Financial Fair Play as key factor

8 months ago 49

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Gareth Southgate sees his England team take on Brazil at Wembley tonight, before then facing Belgium at the same venue on Tuesday.

After that, the next time the squad will be together is in May, after the Premier League season has ended and just ahead of the European Championships in Germany.

Once again though we discussing the conflicting demands of club and country and ever more matches where both are concerned.

On Sunday 19 May the final round of Premier League games are played, on Tuesday 21 May Gareth Southgate names his provisional England squad for the Euros, however, by then, already a number of his likely England squad members will be in Australia, with Newcastle United taking on Tottenham in a friendly in Melbourne on Wednesday 22 May.

Newcastle then play on Friday 24 May against an A-League All Star team, that match at the Marvel Stadium, also in Melbourne.

Only ten days after that, ironically Gareth Southgate and his England side will be playing at St James’ Park, the friendly against Bosnia & Herzegovina on Monday 3 June is the first of just two for England (England v Iceland at Wembley on Friday 7 June is the other) before they head for Germany.

With both Newcastle United and Tottenham having indicated that they intend to take full squads to Australia, including the likes of Trippier, Gordon, Maddison and others who could be in his plans. England boss Gareth Southgate accepting of this modern day reality, even if he might not like it…

Gareth Southgate asked about the complications that a post-season friendly such as Tottenham v Newcastle United causes him with his European Championship preparations as quoted by The Mail – 22 March 2023:

‘It (end-of-season friendlies) is going to happen more and more.

‘Why? Financial fair play means clubs need to generate their own money, so we’re in a bizarre world where there’s more money in the game than ever before, and yet everyone is scrambling across federations and clubs to generate more.

‘The normal way of doing that is to play more games – so is that great news for us, in terms of preparation? No.

‘But we’re going to have players in the FA Cup final (May 25) probably, the Champions League final (June 1) hopefully and a chance of a few other European finals, so we are used to preparing this way.

‘We had to go to Qatar with five days prep, so we adjust to whatever it is and hope there are no injuries from that game (in Australia).’

Newcastle United confirmed Premier League matches to mid-April 2024:

Saturday 30 March 2024 – Newcastle v West Ham (12.30pm) TNT Sports

Tuesday 2 April 2024 – Newcastle v Everton (7.30pm) TNT Sports

Saturday 6 April 2024 – Fulham v Newcastle (3pm)

Saturday 13 April 2024 – Newcastle v Spurs (12.30pm) TNT Sports

Newcastle United including to be confirmed matches:

Saturday 27 April 2024 – Newcastle v Sheff Utd

Saturday 4 May 2024 – Burnley v Newcastle

Saturday 11 May 2024 – Newcastle v Brighton

Sunday 19 May 2024 – Brentford v Newcastle (4pm)

***Newcastle v Crystal Palace waiting for rearranged date