Many leading English Premier League managers want International football friendlies to be scrapped, and for changes to be made to the format of the World Cup, and European Championships qualifiers.

They want midweek International matches to be played on Tuesdays rather than Wednesdays, in order to give players more time to recover for club matches.

One of the most vocal managers on this point is Arsenal FC's boss Arsene Wenger, he said: "We must get rid of friendlies and reorganise all the international competitions...You get a player back on a stretcher 24 hours before a must-win match."

He added: "It's impossible for a player to come back in good form and prepare properly when he has played for his country on a Wednesday evening in Turkey. "You'd have to be a magician rather than a coach to get them back to their normal selves by Saturday."

The Arsenal boss wants all the International Football Associations to be held accountable for injuries incurred on international duty, a principle backed by the G14 group of elite European clubs, including Arsenal.

Wenger said: "Everyone wants to block their ears but that cannot go on forever." "Take the average salary of an African player in the Premiership and compare it with the standard of living in his own country and you can well understand why it's difficult for a club or a player to be compensated by an African federation over cases of injury."

"Fifa must take the lead and make the National Federations subscribe to a worldwide insurance system." As so many of Arsenal's players come from these impoverished regions, one wonders why they don't give the 'donor' countries the money to pay the insurance premiums required to cover the players. So, in the end, there may be an element of hypocrisy involved here, after all, they don't call him, (Arsene Wenger), "Mr Myopic" without good cause, he is legendary in the English Premiership for not seeing incidents involving his own player's actions, especially when disciplinary issues are at stake!

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