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Manchester City were on the wrong end of a UEFA decision last month and FIFA have complicated their Youth League hopes
Manchester City's youth team aren't playing until Wednesday this week - but half of their team could be in action on Tuesday.
That's because five members of the City Football Academy have been selected as part of Neil Ryan's England side for the Under-17 World Cup in Qatar. They face Venezuela in their first group game on Tuesday before matches against Haiti and Egypt, and the City quintet of Dante Headley, Harrison Miles, Ryan McAidoo, Reigan Heskey and Kaden Braithwaite will all be hoping for minutes.
It's a proud moment for the academy, with nearly a third of the outfield players in the squad coming from City. As club bosses try to produce a Ballon d'Or winner, they can take further encouragement from seeing so many of their young players deemed to be some of the best that England has available.
City cannot postpone their schedule while the World Cup is running though, and if England progress, the final only wraps up on November 27. Ben Wilkinson and Oliver Reiss will have to make do without their talent for a number of matches, including two huge games in the UEFA Youth League.
Wilkinson's Under-19s lost in controversial fashion in Villarreal two weeks ago in a game that saw more than 10 yellow cards and a blatant foul from Villarreal in their own penalty area deemed to have been outside the box. That handed City their first defeat of their UEFA Youth League campaign.
They are still in a decent position after winning their first two matches, but the margins are tighter than in the Champions League because the first phase only covers the first six games. Home games this month against Dortmund and Leverkusen will go a long way to seeing if City qualify in the top eight in a competition they are desperate to win, or must face a play-off round.
Making things harder, they may well have to play both of those games without five of their most promising players - four of them started in Villarreal, with Miles an unused substitute.
Despite the absences, Wilkinson is happy to hand opportunities to others to test the strength of the squad as they aim to punch their weight in a European competition they have too often failed to make a mark in.
"We'll have to dig a bit deeper into the squad and find a way but the depth of talent here is something we've always been really proud of," he said. "We'll find a way and I'm confident we've got enough with what we've got to go and win these games."
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