Football: Francis puts international plea to Taylor

(First Edition)

GERRY FRANCIS, the Queen's Park Rangers manager, called for international fixtures to be put back to weekends when speaking on satellite television yesterday. His plea, after being frustrated by regularly losing players to international duty, has been voiced to the England manager, Graham Taylor.

'Players would report on the Wednesday or the Thursday, play on the Saturday or the Sunday at international level - and then you have a whole week to get over knocks or small injuries, and for the club to prepare for Saturday,' he said.

Germany last night hit five second-half goals to beat Ghana 6-1 in an international friendly fixture that had itself brought further controversy to the club and country issue. The French champions, Marseille, had ignored calls by FIFA, the governing body of international football, to release the Ghanaian striker Abedi Pele for the game, insisting he should play in a league match instead.