Midnight - I personally find this FIFA law only works for WCQ's though, as the clubs have interesting ways of making sure players "dont want to return " for international friendlies.
My point was simply to say that non established countries like ourselves have a habit of scheduling games outside the FIFA windows (which are admittedly very sparse), and that as such, for these games, it is quite normal that clubs exercise their right to not release players for them, even if diplomacy should be the norm, and players who are not being actively used, playing reserves etc should be allowed back.
I brought up the point because I remember Australia (I think it was) having to play one of their lower level qualifiers without their European contingent because of the federation's faulty scheduling of these matches.
Obviously clubs find ways of getting around the rule, be it through real or imagined injuries, flight logistic mix ups etc, but this is mainly because few are the national federations that will press for a suspension of the player from the next club match if it is indeed shown that fraudulent means were used to deny the country the use of their player. However, this rarely happens with players from top countries, playing with top clubs, so the issue never raises a big stink.
I assume that the rest of your post was not directed towards me. I'll answer nonetheless...
Is it only me, but isn't the chance of playing England a really invaluable exercise in terms of playing together as a unit against top class opposition?
Then why seek to include BOTH Dwight and Latas in it?
Playing England, friendly or not, will give us a lot of good experience when we come up to play the U.S.
Of course, but believe me when I say that I would much prefer having had someone of KJ's proven quality mixing in with the others in the last 5 friendlies and not having him against England, than the opposite.
Also, what about the confidence that will be flowing with a good display....?
What about the shaking of the confidence that will occur if we got massacred? (I'm not saying we will, mind you)
Then there is the immeasurable factor of playing against one of the most popular and well known teams in the world, a team that has won the WC, hosts the best League in the world, and not to mention perhaps the biggest game in our country's history outside of WCQ's.
Been there done that. Less than two years ago.
Jamaica did as well. Haiti played Brazil. I don't think it has measurably changed the face of football in any of those three examples.
The exceptional nature of the event in question should never blind anyone to the fact that all it is for both countries is a PR coup. Certain young up and coming players will relish it as a once in a lifetime opportunity (as they should), but football development is not a one off event.
But all of this is straying off the point. There are tons of players that need this experience. KJ isn't necessarily one of them. IF, (again note the conditionality), he runs a non negligeable risk of reinjuring himself during the game, he should not play it, bearing in mind the priority of the WC games.
