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England fans unhappy with Friday fixtures

England supporters have reacted angrily to Fifa's changing of the international calendar to allow clubs the return of their players a day early, which means that three of England's Euro 2012 qualifiers will be played on a Friday, reports The Guardian. All double-headers have now been shifted from the traditional Saturday-Wednesday timetable to Friday-Tuesday.

David Taylor, the secretary of Uefa, confirmed that it was compelled to fall into line with the world governing body, which had brought in the change to appease managers around the world.

"Players now play with teams throughout the world so this is a result of Fifa being concerned about the release of them back to clubs and so it has changed its international calendar," said Taylor.

While the FA is understood to have no issue with the switch, Mark Perryman, a spokesman for England supporters, said: "Many supporters are saying that Fifa just doesn't care about fans. A Friday night game at Wembley is fine if you live in London, the home counties or south of Watford but not for anyone else. This will only make it more difficult for those supporters to watch England at Wembley."

Perryman added: "The question is will there now be no games at all on the Sunday prior to a Friday international to allow Capello to maintain the status quo? I don't think so."

The FA confirmed there would still be a full weekend programme ahead of England's Euro 2012 qualifiers.

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