England World Cup squad to ski resort
Thursday May 20, 2010 - Email this article to a friend

The England team will be going to the small and little-known ski resort of Irdning in the province of Styria.

Fabio Capello has been there before when he was manager of  Real Madrid.

It is at an altitude of 750m with a population of just over 2,500.

It is 30km from the better-known ski resort of Schladming.

It only has a handful of lifts, but it has a 1,000m vertical drop.

The squad though is not going for the skiing but for altitude training, team selection and final preparations.

There are few distractions and it doesn't have a reputation for the usual Austrian apres ski - though players could wind down with a visit to the town's brick making museum if the desire so takes them

"We are looking forward very much to be hosting the training camp of the England football team this May. Hotel Schloss Pichlarn, a five-star resort in Irdning, is the ideal place for them to stay and the test match against Japan will definitely provide excellent preparation for the World Cup in South Africa," Margot Bachbauer, a spokeswoman from the Styria Tourist Office has told PlanetSKI.

During the last few years, Styria has focused on hosting football camps for international teams.

As well as England football team there will also be other International teams visiting from Germany, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Japan and Austria.

Many of the World Cup squads are off to other parts of the Alps ahead of the competition in South Africa.

Irdning, altitude of 750mThe French team is in Tignes from May 18th, the Japanese team is in Saas-Fee and the Swiss team will be in Crans-Montana.

Italy will be in Sestriere from May 23rd - June 5th, Algeria in Switzerland and the German team in the Tyrol Alps.

All are preparing for the altitude some of the matches will be played at in South Africa.

Johannesburg matches will be at 1,800m while Rustenburg is at 1,500m and Bloemfontein 1,400m.

England will be based in Irdning for 2 weeks from May 17^th to May 29^th.

However those players involved in the FA Cup will have a different itinerary.  The England Team will also return to the UK for a match against Mexico at Wembley on 24^th May.

They then return to Austria for a final friendly match against Japan in the Austrian town of Graz on Sunday May 30^th at UPC Arena in the city.

UPC Arena, GrazGraz is the second largest city after Vienna and is the capital of the Styria Province. It is an altitude of 340m.

Following the game in Graz, the players selected will travel back to England and have a day off before setting off for South Africa.

England manager, Fabio Capello, is very familiar with Irdning. He held training camps there as manager of Real Madrid and AS Roma.

The squad will have use of swimming pools, a large gym, a private dining area, a gaming room, saunas, steam rooms, a spa and a golf course.

Real Madrid used it as their base on five occasions, and it's where England would have stayed if they had qualified for Euro 2008.

Let's hope the Austrian alpine air does them some good too.

Check out the You Tube video below of David Beckham training with Real Madrid at Irdning, when the Spanish team was managed by a certain Fabio Capello. It doesn't show us an awful lot more about the place but we do see Capello there.

Oh, and another David Beckham haircut.

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