World Cup Qualifiers Schedule

The race towards South Africa starts in August

Fabio Capello has his work cut out for him. England start their qualifying campaign for the next World Cup on September 6th away to Andorra four days before meeting their recent nemesis Croatia in Zagreb.

Present at the negotiations in the Sheraton Hotel in the Croatian capital were David Rodrigo of Andorra, Arno Pijpers of Kazakhstan, Bernd Dominoqq Tange of Belarus, Aleksei Mikhailichenko of Ukraine plus Capello and the host Slaven Bilic.

It took six and a half hours in Zagreb for the six coaches from the teams in the England’s group to reach an agreement on the calendar and in the end both Capello and Bilic claimed they were very happy with the outcome. The Ukrainians were reportedly the least satisfied as they didn’t want to play in June of 2009 and ended up having to visit Croatia and entertain the same team in the space of four days.

“I thank Belarus and Andorra for accepting some compromises, as without them it would have been difficult to reach the agreement,” said the Croatian coach, who was only unhappy with the trip to Belarus on August 19th next year.

“It’s FIFA’s date for friendlies so we’ll be able to count on our internationals just three days before the trip,” moaned Bilic.

Capello on the other hand stated he got exactly what he wanted – an easy opener with Andorra, a relatively lightweight rival in Belarus for the closure and both Croatian games in September.

Group 6 – qualifying calendar

2008

20th August

Kazakhstan vs. Andorra

6th September

Croatia vs. Kazakhstan

Andorra vs. England

Ukraine vs. Belarus

10th September

Croatia vs. England

Andorra vs. Belarus…

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