Hughes seeks four-day rule for postponed Belgrade tie

Faced with the postponement of Wednesday's European Championship qualifier in Belgrade, the Wales manager, Mark Hughes, is keen to ensure he has full access to his squad when the tie is replayed at the start of next season.

The game with Serbia and Montenegro was called off yesterday because of security fears and will now be staged on 20 August. Wales' main concern is that the new date is one allocated for friendly fixtures which gives them only a 48-hour call on players, instead of the usual four-day rule.

In November, Hughes tried and failed to force Birmingham City not to play Robbie Savage the day before the national team was due to fly out to Azerbaijan. Birmingham argued that since the date was officially for friendly internationals the four-day rule did not apply. The sport's world governing body, Fifa, having initially backed Wales, then reversed their decision.

Savage picked up an injury against Fulham and, to Hughes' anger, was withdrawn. "We certainly don't want a repeat of the problems we had last time," Hughes said. "This is something we need to address as a matter of urgency." Mike Lee, a spokesman for the sport's European governing body, Uefa, said the organisation would ask Fifa to designate 20 August as a full international date.

Serbia has been under a state of emergency since the assassination of prime minister, Zoran Djindjic by elements loyal to the old regime of Slobodan Milosevic. While Wales were happy to travel, the Serbian FA had asked for the fixture to be moved to the Millennium Stadium with Wales going to Belgrade in October. This, Wales were reluctant to do; both because of the logistical difficulties of arranging a match likely to be a 72,000 sell-out at such short notice and also because they were anxious to have the final fixture in Group Nine at home.

An alternative date, 30 April, was also rejected because it was too close to the climax of a Premiership campaign in which Ryan Giggs, Craig Bellamy and Gary Speed could all be expected to play vital roles.

Grimsby's Darren Barnard has become the fifth member of Hughes' squad to withdraw from Saturday's game with Azerbaijan after damaging a shoulder. Danny Gabbidon, Andy Johnson, Matthew Jones and Adrian Williams have also returned home.

Following an incident in a Cardiff night-club, Bellamy was challenged by his club manager, Sir Bobby Robson, yesterday to change his personality in the same way he has changed his game. "Craig has worked hard and we have all seen the results," Robson said. "Now he has to work at his character and, if he has the same results, it would be a benefit to everyone."