Pereira urges Premier League to ease schedule for European clubs

Nottingham Forest boss, Vitor Pereira, has urged the Premier League to protect clubs by easing teams’ European schedules.

Forest, who drew the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final against Porto on Thursday, host Europa League rivals Aston Villa on Sunday (14:00 BST) in the Premier League.

Last-eight opponents, Porto face Estoril Praia later on Sunday, at 20:30 BST, before the second leg at the City Ground next Thursday.

The Portuguese league has moved fixtures for their teams in Europe this season.

PSG were successful in a request to move a Ligue 1 fixture against Lens before their Champions League quarter-final first leg win against Liverpool on Tuesday.

The Parisians said moving the fixture would allow them to “prepare in the best possible conditions for their upcoming fixtures”.

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“If we protect these teams, the teams in the Europa League, Conference League and the Champions League, for sure England can get more titles,” said Pereira.

“If you look at PSG, they [France’s Ligue de Football Professionel] delayed the previous four matches to [allow them to] be in conditions to compete in the league and Champions League. This is what we need to reflect about it.

“Sometimes it’s important to protect the clubs, to give them the chance to win more titles.

“In my opinion, to protect the teams who are playing in the Europa League and the Conference League especially, and even the Champions League, just one day after is very important to get results.”

Premier League fixtures are decided between the Premier League and its broadcast partners.

The Premier League initially establishes a fixture list, before broadcast partners such as Sky Sports and TNT Sports select matches for television.

Fixtures are subject to change based on a team’s progression in European competition.

(BBC)