Ferguson criticises TV scheduling

Soccer:Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has blamed television schedules for creating 'ridiculous situations' for teams playing in Europe. The Scot said the vast amount of money pumped into the game by broadcasters means clubs have lost control of their fixture lists.

“When you shake hands with the devil you have to pay the price. Television is God at the moment. It shows itself quite clearly because when you see the fixture lists come out now, they can pick and choose whenever they want the top teams on television.

“You get some ridiculous situations when you’re playing on Wednesday night in Europe and then at lunchtime the following Saturday. You ask any manager if they would pick that themselves and there’d be no chance.”

Meanwhile Ferguson confirmed that Rooney would miss tomorrow’s match with a hamstring injury and said that it was difficult to know when the England striker would be back in action.

Ferguson told a news conference at Old Trafford ahead of the Basle match: “He’s not playing tomorrow. It’s difficult to assess with hamstrings but we hope we have him back quickly. He did a bit of jogging this morning but that’s all.”

Ferguson also said that Hernandez’s dead leg would keep him out but that the Mexican should be back for the home match against Norwich on Saturday. He will choose between Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov and fit-again Danny Welbeck in his attack.

But the problems do not stop there for United. Central defenders Jonny Evans (ankle), Chris Smalling (groin) and Nemanja Vidic (calf) also did not train. That is almost certain to mean Rio Ferdinand lining up alongside youngster Phil Jones tomorrow evening, with Antonio Valencia again pressed into service as an emergency right-back as Rafael (shoulder) is out with a long-term problem.

Fellow long-term casualties Tom Cleverley (foot) and Darron Gibson (ankle) have long since been ruled out.