Japan Coach and Brazilian legend Zico accused FIFA's TV broadcasting deals for Japan's two 15:00 World Cup fixtures, blaming the World Football's governing body of putting revenue above the players on the pitch.

"It's a crime that we had to play in this heat again," Japan's coach said after the match.

Zico blamed the TV broadcasting deals FIFA has signed with Television bosses across the globe for being scheduled to play two matches in a row at 15:00. Japan's coach alleged that this was done on purpose so that Japan will play it's two fixtures during prime-time viewing in Japan.

"Our last game was at three o'clock too but they want to do it that way for television. I guess business is business," Zico said at the press conference held after the match against Croatia.

Japan played the second late afternoon match with soaring temperatures against Croatia, and Zico alleges that this had a very negative effect on the Japanese players' performance and their health.

"We've suffered playing twice at 3pm in the blazing sun. It is a criminal schedule. Football has become a business and players are sacrificed. Players have died during tournaments before and we could have more problems in the future," Zico added.

Despite these allegations, nobody could have arranged this beforehand, as the Groups were determined by ballots, during Liepzig's World Cup Draw back in December, unless there was a way to determine or control the outcome of the ballot.

It was a tense press conference for the Japanese team, as they must win against defending Champions Brazil in order to progress to the knockout stages.

Bookmark/Search this post with:

delicious | digg | google | yahoo | technorati