League chief blames Eriksson for doing 'deals'

The Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore feels the England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has created his own problems by brokering deals with Premiership managers.

Scudamore believes the criticism Eriksson has faced regarding his selection policy in the wake of England's 3-1 defeat to Australia last Wednesday has been justified. Eriksson devalued the Upton Park friendly by fielding different teams in each half, mainly to appease club managers angered at such a game at this time of the season and the effect it would have on their players.

According to Scudamore, despite Eriksson having the power of every available rule book at his disposal and demanding club bosses abide by his decisions, he has created his own problem.

"It's been a situation of reaping what you sow," Scudamore said. "I don't wish to make it worse for Sven and be overly critical, but the reality is every single time England play – whether it be a friendly, a qualifying tournament, in whatever context – matches have to be taken very seriously.

"You are representing your country and quite frankly we have got ourselves into this mess because of the deals that have been done between club managers and Sven, and it's just not the way to go about doing it. Now there are certain managers who have a predominance of England players in their teams, but the minute you start to give the impression these matches are not important the whole thing spirals down and I think Wednesday was the culmination of a vicious kind of spiral we have gotten into.

"Every game is a meaningful game. They are either World Cup games or European Championship games or much-needed practice games. What he did is his choice. He's the manager. I'm not going to sit here and second guess what he wants to do. If he thinks playing a team for 45 [minutes] and then putting another team out for 45 is the right thing to do, that's his call.

"But I don't think it helps him in his case for everybody taking this whole thing seriously. But we can get round all this by sticking with the rule book. The rules are quite simple: you will release your players for international duty, and that comes from the very top, it's in the Fifa rule book and there is absolutely no reason why Sven and the FA cannot demand that happen.

"When you have the power of the Fifa statute book, the Uefa statute book, the FA and Premier League rule book behind you, I don't quite know why he feels so fettered." Scudamore maintained that Eriksson does have "a good relationship with the clubs", and that will be put to the test with a planned meeting involving the Swede, the FA and, as is hoped, all 20 Premiership managers.

"We will get this meeting on soon because it does need to be put back in the right box. What's happened is crazy and doesn't do the game any good at all," Scudamore added.

"Everybody is running around and blaming everybody else, and it's a culmination of circumstances that we need to address and quickly. I hope I will attend and that all 20 Premier League managers attend the meeting. The Premier League was founded with all 20 [managers] sitting round; all 20 decide on what's going to happen, and it happens. I think the best thing is to get all 20 in the room.

"You will have six ex-England managers in there, so there's a hard core of sympathy before you start, and whatever is agreed should be adhered to. We have to get this in order, and I don't think there's anything here we can't resolve sensibly."

Scudamore said the ideas of the club managers will carry considerable weight, however, because it is their players who are being called upon at often hectic times of the season.

"It is unrealistic to expect a club manager to think of anything other than his club first," he said. "And whichever pecking order you put the domestic competitions, whether it be Premier League, Champions League, Uefa Cup, FA Cup and Worthington Cup, a manager stands or falls by his success in those competitions.

"So we have to look at their suggestions as to how to alleviate the problem because they know, they are the experts on what goes on. It's not the administrators who know what the effects are on players.

"But we can never get to the situation where an individual manager within a season can strike arbitrary deals with England managers as to how often and how long the players are going to be allowed to play, or whether or not they are going to be called up. It just doesn't work and I think it's wrong."