Sir Alex Ferguson's recent sideswipe at international friendlies, especially those staged in the Middle East, has met with a wealth of different reactions. Some have pointed out that the Scot took his own team to Saudi Arabia at the beginning of 2008 but Paddy Barclay, himself from north of the border points out further points of well, hypocrisy.

Barclay, writing in The Times, does qualify that position:

Just suppose that Manchester United, in the midst of a losing battle to remain champions, faced an April programme of six matches in 22 days, including an FA Cup semi-final. Would Sir Alex Ferguson be happy with such congestion?

Suppose that, in addition, England crammed two friendly matches into that month, both away from home, and insisted that United players take part, in each case for the full 90 minutes. Would Ferguson think it “a coach’s nightmare” — to borrow the phrase the United manager used this week about international friendlies — or utter stronger language? He would certainly consider the additional burden unacceptable.

Yet substitute “Aberdeen” for “Manchester United”, “Scottish FA” for “FA” and “Scotland” for “England” — and delete the “Sir” — and you have exactly the position in April 1986. Ferguson was Scotland manager, preparing, like Fabio Capello now, for a World Cup. He was also in charge of Aberdeen and yet that did not deter him from using Alex McLeish and Willie Miller against England at Wembley and Holland in Eindhoven, plus Jim Bett in the latter “intrusion of a friendly game”.

But Barclay shares the distaste for the idea of "friendly" matches:

For what it is worth, I heartily agree with him that international friendlies should be all but abolished. I have long felt that they should be replaced by competitive matches in a new kind of calendar that caters for a World Cup or continental tournament every summer. In other words, the competitions should be every two years instead of four.

This would give Fifa, Uefa and the national associations enough money to be able to pay players in their own right and thus have at least equal clout with the clubs when it comes to playing and training time.