The fixture change has yet to be confirmed by Sky or either of the clubs but the Football Association of Wales seemingly leaked the news in a fit of pique as it appears to contravene what they believed was a prior arrangement with the television schedulers.
Wales have a crucial match in Serbia on the following Wednesday, when a win will guarantee them at least a Euro 2004 play-off place, and Mark Hughes had hoped to assemble his squad on the Sunday. As such the FAW requested that games featuring the squad members all take place on Saturday to allow them the maximum preparation time.
But Sky’s decision could now end up costing us the services of Gary Speed and Craig Bellamy on the opening weekend as the FAW have appealed to FIFA to get the date reclassified from a friendly date to a full international date. This would mean that Hughes could request that all his squad members meet four days before the game, instead of just two.
The scheduling of the fixture was out of the FAW’s hands as it was originally postponed in April because of political unrest in Belgrade following the assassination of the Serbian Prime Minister. In the circumstances it would surely not have been too much to ask to expect Sky to allow our game to go-ahead as scheduled on Saturday.
A rather feeble statement from Sky explained: "We did try to help by choosing the main match that day as the Liverpool game."
Whether or not the fact that the Sky doesn’t have the rights to show the Euro 2004 finals influenced the decision in any way is unclear.