Farina sympathises with Verbeek

Current Queensland and former Socceroos coach Frank Farina says he sympathises with national boss Pim Verbeek over his difficulties in getting players together. Verbeek will hold a camp in Sydney today for A-League based players.

Sydney FC coach John Kosmina had initially called for his players to be excused from the camp because of Friday night's minor semi-final. Farina says player availability is a constant problem for the national coach. "I was saying it throughout my tenure, I had six years there and trying to convince the people that were in charge that there's major issues and major concerns," he said.

"Hopefully now Pim's come in he can reinforce what I was saying for a long period of time. "But it's a very big issue and it's a difficult issue for Australia." Verbeek will take his squad for another training run this morning in the lead-up to Australia's first World Cup qualifier against Qatar in Melbourne in a fortnight.

He says it is important to maintain regular contact with the locally-based players in the Australian squad. "I had some arguments to tell him (Kosmina) that I need to have the players at least for one morning," he said. "We do a light schedule, we don't take any risks with the players because I know the importance of the game on Friday."

Sydney kicks off the A-league finals series against Queensland at the Football Stadium on Friday night.


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ABC News