BRISBANE Roar have threatened to field their youth team against Melbourne City next month if forced to play within 72 hours of their likely AFC Champions League playoff against Shanghai Shenhua in China.

The Roar’s potential clash against the Shanghai club has been moved back a day to February 8, meaning kick-off is less than 72 hours before the Roar’s A-League game against City at AAMI Park on February 11.

Brisbane are yet to book their berth against Shanghai, but are expected to do so by beating either Global FC (Philippines) or Tampines Rovers (Singapore) at Suncorp Stadium on January 31.

If the Roar do earn the right to travel to Shanghai, A-League boss Greg O’Rourke yesterday said the City-Roar A-League match would not be shifted back a day, despite Football Federation Australia’s preference that teams have 72 hours between games.

The Roar will be forced to endure a horror turnaround. Source: AAP

Instead, FFA has asked the Asian Football Confederation to return the likely Roar-Shanghai Shenhua clash to its original date of Tuesday, February 7.

The AFC pushed the match back a day because it clashed with Shanghai SIPG’s Champions League home playoff against either Sukhothai (Thailand) or Yadanarbon (Myanmar).

“We’re expecting to hear back from the AFC within 24 hours whether they will change the (likely Roar-Shenhua) match back to the date it had been first scheduled on,” O’Rourke said.

If AFC do not make the change, FFA will ask them to allow the Roar to leave China a few hours after the match rather than having to stay in Shanghai for most of the next day as is required under Champions League guidelines.

That would allow the Roar to arrive in Melbourne on Thursday afternoon rather than Friday afternoon.

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Yhat scenario would still leave both the Roar and players’ union Professional Footballers Australia unsatisfied about player welfare concerns.

Roar managing director Mark Kingsman has told O’Rourke the club is considering fielding youth team players against Melbourne City if the dates are not changed.

“That’s not going to be a good look but it’s something we might have to do,” Kingsman said.

“Greg has set he doesn’t want to set a precedence by moving our game against Melbourne City, but why not set a precedence?”

O’Rourke, who will discuss the matter with PFA chief executive John Didulica today, said other teams had previously threatened to field youth teams in similar congested fixtures situations but had not done so.

He also said swapping the City-Roar February 11 game with the Western Sydney-Central Coast game on February 12 was not a simple procedure due to the effect it would have on the three other teams.