Victory face fixture problems

Melbourne Victory could be struggling to find a suitable venue to play the home leg of its major Hyundai A-League semi-final in what shapes as a potential fixturing nightmare for Football Federation Australia.

FFA will announce its finals schedule following the completion of the last home and away round of the season this coming weekend with Melbourne already guaranteed a top two finish and a place in the major semi-final as it bids to become the first club ever to win back-to-back titles and the first to win three championships overall.

But Melbourne's finals campaign also begins at the same time as its 2010 Asian Champions' League campaign - which has created a dilemma both for the club and FFA.

The first leg of the major semi-final was originally set down for Saturday February 20 - just three days before Melbourne kicks off its ACL campaign in Beijing.

As a result the Victory is trying to bring forward the date of the first leg of the major semi-final - which will be against either Sydney or the Gold Coast depending on the result of this week's last round matches - to Thursday February 18 to enable it to have more time to prepare for its match in Beijing.

But even if FFA approves the switch, Victory could be struggling to use its regular home ground Etihad Stadium for the match.

The Victory's Docklands home is booked the following night for a Collingwood-St Kilda first round NAB Cup match while the last of AC/DC's three concerts will be staged at the ground on Monday February 15.

That will leave stadium management with little time to get the ground ready for an A-League final just 72 hours later - should the Thursday kick-off go ahead - while the AFL will be reluctant to allow further traffic on the ground ahead of its first match of the season.

And it will also raise the question of just what sort of playing surface will the Victory be presented with - even if the game is allowed go ahead at the ground on Thursday February 18 - given past problems with the Etihad Stadium surface after concerts.

While Etihad Stadium management are yet to receive a request from the Victory to bring their major semi-final forward by two days, Melbourne appears to have little other option as it simply won't make it to Beijing on time if the first leg of the major semi-final is either played interstate or at Etihad Stadium on its originally scheduled date of Saturday February 20.