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Clarence Acuna could be the latest South American on a collision course with Bobby Robson after he was named in the Chile squad for a friendly against on March 21st followed by a world cup clash against against Solano's Peru on the 27th March. Chilean national coach , Nelson Acosta will follow in the footsteps of Peruvian coach Julius Ceaser in flying to Newcastle trying to persuade Acuna to resume his international career. The problem with South American international games is that there is a world cup qualifying match EVERY MONTH. That means missing one game in four for your club , hence the statement that If Solano / Acuna do go back to play international football they will have their wages docked by 25%. It's not just the match that they miss, travelling to the other side of the world seriously affects the form of the player. The South American qualifying group consists of a single group of 10 countries. The teams play a total of 18 games, with the top four qualifying for the finals, the fifth placed team plays against the winner of Oceania for another place. At the moment there have been 10 games played and both Peru and Chile are struggling . Peru lost there last game to Paraguay 5 - 1 and lie in second bottom of the group. Chile are doing slightly better in seventh place but still 6 points behind a qualifying place. The South American Fixture list/ league table is here

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2001

Answers

icNewcastle are running a quick poll on this at the moment and the stats are currently running at 30% say yes they should be allowed to play and 70% say no they shouldn't......go on, get over there and vote YES.....why should we be the only b@st@rds who have to suffer the tw@ts.

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2001

I don't think they should play , Acuna in particular said he wouldn't play for his country . There also seems little point in them playing. If Chile or Peru loose another 2 games they won't be able to qualify anyway.

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2001

He didn't say he wouldn't: he said he would play for United only til he got comfortable with the PL.

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2001

If there are so many South Americans playing in Europe why don't nthey play there qualifying matches in Europe?

Also the way that the South American world cup qualifying sytem works is crazy. 18 matches as opposed to eight for us. I'm sure that BR wouldn't mind Solano and Acuna going back for a game every three months or so, but once a month is ridiculous.

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2001

When we signed them we knew they were international players. We can't sign them then expect them never to play for their country.

When you sign an international you should be ready to let them play if not what's the point in signing them. Why should we be any different to say, Wenger letting Kanu go or Chelsea letting Babayaro go?

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2001

Sorry this coming from an Australian stand point, which means I am Looking through blood red coloured glasses, especially in regards to Leeds and their Aussie contingent.

If you sign a player who is a current International for a country on the other side of the world you have to expect for them to continue representing their country. If you sign a player who is called up in the future to represent his nation, to bad.

O.K. the club can with hold wages for missed games due to international games, I have no problem about that.

Their really needs to be a unified world football calendar.

-- Anonymous, February 28, 2001