If Chelsea win their first Premier League title in five years, they may celebrate it with a post-season tour, possibly to Japan, which will potentially alarm those national federations who have players at the London club and are due to participate in key Euro 2016 qualifiers in June.
José Mourinho revealed that the league leaders, who can extend their advantage at the top of the division with victory over Stoke City on Saturday, are in early talks over a possible week-long trip which would take place after the final home game against Sunderland on 24 May. No destination has been set for the trip, which would involve two friendlies, though the manager suggested the club’s new £40m-a-season shirt sponsorship deal with Yokohama Rubber made Japan, a 12,000-mile round trip, a likely venue.
Fifa regulations stipulate players must be made available to prepare 14 days before an international tournament, which suggests Ramires, Oscar, Willian and Juan Cuadrado would not be available given their anticipated involvement at the Copa América, which starts on 11 June in Chile, with Brazil and Colombia respectively. However, Chelsea’s Belgian, Serbian, English and Spanish contingent – who face away qualifiers on 12-14 June – would all be able to take part and return in time to link up with their respective international sides before friendlies and qualifiers.
Although the club is well within its rights to take its employees on the tour, national sides are unlikely to greet the news with great enthusiasm at the end of a long domestic season and with competitive fixtures still to come in mid-June. Principal among them will be the Spanish Football Federation, which was denied Diego Costa over the recent international window because of a hamstring injury which has dogged him all season. The forward, who may start on the bench against Stoke, was also unavailable for Spain’s fixtures in November with a similar problem.
“If we win the title, I think we’ll go on an after-season tour, play a couple of matches in some destination where people will be very enthusiastic to have the Premier League champions,” said Mourinho. “It’s something we are thinking about, a good way to celebrate. Not a victory parade but a trip, a week where we play a couple of matches but, at the same time, can be together without the pressure of winning every match, without the pressure and tension of the last weeks of the Premier League.
“We can also relax and go to holidays with that good feeling. But we still have nine matches to play. [The chairman] Bruce Buck and the board are talking with me about destinations. We want to go somewhere where people are enthusiastic to have a club like Chelsea.”
Asked whether Japan would be the likeliest destination given the new association with Yokohama Rubber, particularly as the club’s pre-season tour will be to the United States, Mourinho said: “I don’t know but that would make some sense.”
Scans on Wednesday confirmed Costa has recovered from the hamstring strain sustained in Chelsea’s 3-2 win at Hull just before the international window but he may not be risked from the start against Stoke. “At this moment the muscle is fine,” said Mourinho. “But football is more than that: you need confidence, to believe that you don’t need to break your intensity and are free to express yourself at the maximum intensity, and that’s our doubt. We’ll see the next 24 hours. But selected [in the squad]? That’s for sure.”