• Print
  • Read Speaker
Men's Senior Team

Sven's friendly plan

The FA will wait until England's group opponents for this summer's World Cup Finals are known before deciding on any friendly opponents in the lead-up to the big kick-off.

With Saturday's win over Argentina still so fresh in the public consciousness, we've been inundated here at Soho Square with enquiries as to who England will face next.

So, we went to the man in charge to find out more. "Of course we are looking at our options," Sven told us.

"But the thing that makes the most sense is to wait to see who we are drawn with in Germany.

"That way we can pick the teams to play who will be most useful in terms of building towards the Finals.

"We will find out who that will be on 9 December and then we can start to arrange our games.

"I must say once again a thank you to the fans who supported us so fantastically in Geneva and for our whole qualifying campaign.

"The players, the coaches and everyone involved with England is already looking forward to March when we can play our next game."

The World Cup Draw takes place in Leipzig on 9 December. There will be three friendly games before England's first World Cup game in Germany, the first of which will definitely take place on 1 March, with time and opponents yet to be decided.

There will be two further friendly games in May/June. The exact dates of these friendlies will be determined according to when England's first game is in the Finals; the earlier England are drawn to play in the Finals, the earlier these friendlies will be played.

We will of course keep you bang up to date with all the England news and preparations here on TheFA.com