Keith Wyness: Man City & Chelsea requests have been rejected amid 'Mystery' reveal

Everton’s former chief Keith Wyness believes the Premier League rejected Manchester City and Chelsea’s requests to postpone the first two games of next season to obstruct the Club World Cup.

Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, the 66-year-old – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – revealed FIFA are currently in a “big battle” with Uefa and the domestic leagues over the competition.

Man City and Chelsea are set to compete in the 32-team event next summer, with the final to be played on 13 July at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

FIFA has told all the participating clubs they must use their strongest available squads throughout the Club World Cup.

Pep Guardiola revealed last week the Premier League has rejected Man City’s request to postpone the first two games of next season to allow their players to recover following the competition.

Man City and Chelsea could do without extra fixtures

Wyness admitted the clubs could “really do without” the extra fixtures next summer.

He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “The Premier League are taking a view that FIFA is getting too big for its boots in terms of the number of competitions it wants to run.

“The Club World Cup is one that really we could do without. I know it only affects 32 teams, but that’s still a lot of quality players that are going to be playing a number of games.

“City will certainly be putting more stress on the squad. Even though they would make a lot of money, it’s still too many games.

“This is all about the big battle between FIFA, the leagues and UEFA. It’s all about that battle.

“The players are the ones that are suffering, and I think we’ve got to stop that.

“What the Premier League are trying to say is ‘No, we’re not going to let you go for those two games and we’re going to try and put a block wherever we can about it’.

“I’m sure we’ve all been reading that there are problems around this Club World Cup, with no broadcast deals yet, no real sponsorship deals in place.

“It’s got to have a big question mark about it right now, but I’m sure there will be something.

“We may see some mysterious money appear from somewhere in the Gulf region to help it through.”

In other news, “enormous” offers expected for Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah.

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