A row between the Uruguayan and Australian national football federations is looming as the schedule Uruguay announced Monday for a World Cup play-off between the two countries would create problems for the visiting Australian team's return flight.

The Nov. 12 match in Montevideo is the first leg of the World Cup play-offs with Australia with the return leg on Nov. 16 in Sydney. The winner of the November competition will go through to the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

The original plan for the match scheduled an early evening game to make it easy for the Australians to get back in their home country for the Nov. 16 match. But after the Australian football federation rejected their Uruguayan counterparts' request for a change of date, the Uruguayan Association changed its plans so the match would take place at 9:00 p.m. local time (23:00 GMT); the same time as the LAN Chile airline flight that was supposed to take the Australians home.

The Uruguayan Association had wanted the match date changed to Nov. 11, to give players more time to recuperate and prepare for the Sydney match.

The Uruguayan press reported that Australia's coach objected, saying it would give Uruguay an advantage, but the official reason given was that Australia's travel plans had already been programmed.

The teams had also met in the play-offs for the 2002 World Cup which took place in Japan and South Korea. That time, Uruguay beat Australia 3-0 in Montevideo and 1-0 in Australia.

Source: Xinhua