Pep gives me the pip in cup-tie row
MANCHESTER City manager Pep Guardiola has called for English football to scrap one of its cup competitions (Sportsmail), blaming player injuries on the ‘relentless’ domestic schedule of matches. My message to Pep is that if you don’t like having to play football at Christmas and the rest of our soccer heritage, go elsewhere. Stop meddling with our football culture. You should remember that the supporters of 86 of the 92 Football League clubs may have little interest in European football. My club, Birmingham, won the League Cup in 2011, which was tremendous. Pep, why not solve your problem by scrapping the Europa League or keeping the Champions League solely for champions?
JAMES ALLEN, Birmingham. CERTAIN Premier League managers have been questioning the number of games played. I wonder why playing two games a week, which is just three hours of work, as a squad of 22-plus is such a problem. The two domestic cup competitions are the only way the rest of the Football League teams have a chance to win something. If Premier League managers don’t want to win the cups, then play your second or third teams and let your other players rest. The Africa Cup of Nations takes place only every two years, so why do managers moan about it?
STEVE BONIFACE, Milton Keynes, Bucks. I DISAGREE with the Mail’s chief sports writer Martin Samuel that if we win the right to host the World Cup in 2030, the final must be held at Wembley because London is the capital. The World Cup final has been played in Pasadena in California, Munich, Johannesburg and twice in Rio de Janeiro, none of which are capital cities. On top of that, Rio has hosted the Olympics, as has Barcelona, Montreal, Atlanta, St Louis, Los Angeles three times, Sydney, Melbourne and Munich. Calling for a Wembley final is typical Southern bias. The North dominates our football yet, for no good reason, the South gets virtually all the internationals. If we do get the World Cup, it should go to the hotbed of football — the North-West.
ALAN LOWE, Lytham St Annes, Lancs.