Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has claimed that The Eurovision Song Contest could derail his team's chances of retaining the Premier League title.
The musical extravaganza is being in staged in Liverpool this weekend, and as result of policing issues, City's trip to relegation threatened Everton has been moved to a 2pm kickoff on Sunday.
City originally wanted to play the Toffees the day before with one eye on the second leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final clash with Real Madrid next Wednesday which stands at 1-1 after the first leg.
But while Guardiola is frustrated by the date change, he is aware that this players need to adapt to what is a relentless run-in.
"I don't want to be distracted by Real because we have time - not much time because we play Sunday, thank you so much... - but the Goodison Park game is a priority," Guardiola said in his pre-match press conference.
"I don't understand it but I don't want a fight on that any more. I don't understand but we have to adapt it.
"We don't fight on the schedule from the Premier League, UEFA and so on It's not frustrating - how many times can I comment on that? I'm pretty sure that La Liga and the Premier League want to help teams, I don't think they want to make us uncomfortable.
"It is the schedule with this amount of games that is the problem. We couldn't play on Saturday because of Eurovision in Liverpool and we don't have enough police to do two events at the same time.
"We would prefer to have more time to prepare but it is what it is. It's not like in France or Germany where they play on Friday [when teams are in Europe the following midweek]. Here, the Premier League is more important and the schedule is the schedule.
"We cannot swap. I felt it since day one and it's not going to change."
Pep Guardiola's team currently sit one point ahead of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table, while Everton are one place above the relegation zone ahead of City's trip to Goodison Park.