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Mauricio Pochettino has pleaded for help from English football’s governing bodies after Borussia Dortmund were given one day more to prepare for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash on Tuesday.
Spurs played Arsenal on Saturday and drew 1-1, while Dortmund lost to Augsburg on Friday.
What’s the word?
Spurs hold a 3-0 lead going into the second leg after dismantling their German opponents at Wembley.
Goals from Son Heung-Min, Jan Vertonghen and Fernando Llorente sealed a scintillating victory but the club’s form since has dipped considerably.
Losses to Burnley and Chelsea have derailed their title challenge, while a draw with the Gunners came about only after Hugo Lloris saved a last-minute Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang penalty.
Pochettino, then, is perhaps right to question the amount of time his side have been given to prepare, particularly with the cauldron of Signal Iduna Park awaiting.
Quoted by BBC, he said: “It’s strange that no-one has said anything about that.
“It’s impossible that one team has 24 hours more to prepare. It’s massive.
“We need help from the FA, we need help from the Premier League.
“I don’t know whose fault it is. I don’t know whether it is the FA, the Premier League, the club or the TV [who] wanted the matches to be on those days.”
Scheduling a disgrace, but unlikely to matter
An English club last won the Champions League in 2012, when Chelsea completed an unlikely triumph, and it seems that the governing bodies of English football care little about ending that drought.
Spurs have a golden chance to head into the quarter-finals for the first time under Pochettino’s management but they have been hamstrung by a bureaucratic decision that has merely served the interests of BT Sport and Sky Sports, who broadcast all three of their Premier League games across the past week.
At the end of the day, it is unlikely to matter against Dortmund, such is the stranglehold the north London outfit have established on the tie.
But it may be a deciding factor in a potentially tight quarter-final.
Pochettino has appealed directly for help; he is unlikely to get any – such is the money involved in the television rights’ deals – but he certainly should.