Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri wants campaign introduced to ease fixture congestion in England
The Chelsea boss believes it is very difficult to compete in the Europa League with the Premier League rules currently in place
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MAURIZIO SARRI wants Chelsea to launch a campaign to ease the fixture congestion on our top clubs.
The new Italian head coach is already concerned that battling Europa League games with Premier League will have a draining effect on his squad.
Wild weather saw Sarri and his squad delayed in Greece overnight on Thursday giving them just 48 hours to prepare for tomorrow's game at West Ham.
Former Napoli boss Sarri said: "In Italy if you are playing in the Champions League you can ask to play the match before on a Friday or Saturday.
"If you play in the Europa League away, not at home, you can ask to play on the Monday night.
"I think this is right. If you want to be competitive in Europe, I think this is right.
"For an English team, it is very difficult to play in the Europa League with the Premier League rules.
"In Italy, it is different. In Italy, after this match, we would play for sure on Monday night.
"I think the club have to ask for this."
Premier League clubs are slave to the massive amounts of TV money which fill their coffers and make them among the richest in the world.
The flip side is that their paymasters have a strong hand in dictating kick off times to attract peak audiences on the box.
Tomorrow's opponents West Ham have had their Saturday October 6 away match at Brighton switched recently to the Friday night beforehand.
Sarri reckons TV's whip hand hinders the chances of success for English clubs in Europe and they have little power to demand changes from the authorities.
He said: "In England we cannot ask this.
"It’s not so easy at this moment, maybe it is not a great problem because we have played only six matches.
"Maybe in two, three or four months it will be a problem.
"First of all, I hope to be in the Europa League in three or four months.
Maybe I have to rest many players on Thursdays.
"At the moment, I hope to qualify before the last match of this group, but maybe in the future the players need to rest five, six, seven at a time."
Sarri is likely to be without winger Pedro who picked up a shoulder injury in Thursday's 1-0 win at PAOK Salonika.
Sarri admits even he is gobsmacked by his flawless start to life at Chelsea with six wins from his first six competitive games.
He said: “I am surprised. In Naples, the beginning was very difficult.
"Not for a long time but the first month was very difficult.
"Here, at the moment, I am very happy.
"I am very happy with the situation, I am very happy with the players, I am very happy with the club.
“I know that the Premier League is a very competitive competition.
"I know that in the future, probably, I will have to face some difficulties.”
"The next one of those is today’s trip to West Ham where Chelsea have lost two of their last three games.
The Hammers have also picked up form with their first victory of the season after four successive defeats.
Sarri said: “I have seen the five matches of West Ham in the Premier League.
"I think they are a very good team. They changed in the last match against Everton, from 4-2-3-1 to 4-1-4-1.
"They played very well. I think the position in the table of West Ham is not reality.”
