I suppose it's better than a Friday night kick off but it does mean you'll be in Eastbourne if you want to watch the England game.
Shame it wasn't 12noon as it could have meant Wings fans could have just got home in time. As it is I won't be able to make it.
The England fixture has been known for many months, wouldn't it have made sense if our league kicked off on Sat 4th Aug (rather than the 11th) and freed this Saturday up? Internationals always have a bad affect on non-league games and a high number of conf-south/north teams usually feature in the 3rd qualifier.
This Saturday in October has been FAC 3Q day for as many years as I have been going to Welling (approaching 20). We had this when we played Harrow a few years ago.
I would argue there is little to stop the England game being an evening fixture to solve this problem (as has happened in the recent past), save the possibility of recovery time before flying to Russia, but that would arguably cause less inconvenience.
It's only been the last 3/4 years where I can remember England having more Saturday 3pm games than ever before. Not sure why? Tv deals, police allowing it? I just find it strange that the FA schedule it (if it is them) without looking at the date and realising it is FA Cup day.
Unfortunately you can only blame the FA for the 3pm kick off.
I think it was from the 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign onwards FIFA attempted to come up with a harmonised international calendar to minimise disruption to domestic leagues given the proliferation of non-domestic players in many leagues. This led to the Saturday\Wednesday double headers which cause us so much trouble. I have difficulty remembering anything other than midweek matches in the league season for England before that, although someone can probably advise me otherwise.
Also, back in the good old days the USSR were one team, as were Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia, and Andorra, San Marino and the bobblehats from the North Sea didn't take part. That, at a rough calculation, is about 15 extra teams in qualification and hence a lot more games.
who gives a sh1t about England anyway. We have only got about 40 players in the Premiership anyway and you can always watch the game on MOTD anyway if its any good
