39 hours flying and three matches in one week...

[Antepli Ejderha]

The papers here have rightly dwelt on this issue:

The Galatasaray player Fernando Meira who played for Portugal on Wednesday after playing on Sunday against IBB and playing yesterday for Galatasaray in Ankara against Anakaraspor.

This was his schedule:

Sunday club match
Monday Istanbul to Lisbon
Tuesday Lisbon to Rio
Wednesday international match
Thursday Rio to Lisbon
Friday Lisbon to Istanbul then Istanbul to Ankara
Saturday club match and Ankara to Istanbul

This player has spent 35 hours flying and played three matches in a week. Is this healthy or safe?

[Sam]

39 hours flying and three matches in one week...

There's nothing inherently unhealthy about flying (I'm assuming the players weren't in economy class). One could hardly blame him for being thoroughly knackered by the end of it all, but he was only in the air in total for a couple of hours longer than Portugal's other players, not to mention several of Brazil's own.

The papers here haven't even mentioned it in passing as far as Ronaldo or Deco (or Robinho, who didn't seem too badly affected yesterday) are concerned. That might be down to the match not actually having happened, though, since it didn't involve England.

[Anton Gramscescu]

39 hours flying and three matches in one week...

I wonder if there's a special regime oplayers follow in this situation. I mean, *if* you fly business and *if* you drink an incredible amount of water on the flight and *if* you sleep just the right amount (which varies depending on the length of the flight and the number of time zones crossed), I can imagine flying across the atlantic and playing a match the next day. Just.

But doing it again the next day? Sound batshit crazy to me. He must have been barely conscious playing against Ankaraspor. How was his performance?

[Antepli Ejderha]

39 hours flying and three matches in one week...

Thanks for the replies.

Meira played well enough, he did gift them a goal after four minutes but the ref and linesman (can't call him an assistant ref) contrived to either not see it or just not award it, ball cleared off line but it had crossed it. De Nigris was the scorer of the goal that never was.

I just can't believe the logic of flying to Brazil for a friendly, were Nike involved in this one?

In terms of flying and waiting around in airports etc it surely cannot be healthy for players, it was not only 35 hours of flying but all the time hanging around, your body must have know idea of where the fuck it is.

[ursus arctos]

39 hours flying and three matches in one week...

Nike is involved in all of them, but this one also had serious political aspects, as it was held in a new stadium built outside of Brasilia that was full of politicians.

The location of the match made the trip even more difficult than usual because Brasilia is close to 2 hours from Rio by plane (two other legs that aren't reflected in the summary above).

[Antepli Ejderha]

39 hours flying and three matches in one week...

This is just madness then.

I am surprised that Sir Alex hasn't said anything. Don't like the man but he does protect his players.

[Jorge Porbillas]

39 hours flying and three matches in one week...

Ferguson wouldn't let Giggs go to Cardiff let alone Brazil ...