The weekend is nearly upon us and for football fans there’s nothing whatsoever to look forward to as it’s time for the international fixtures to take place. It feels like the season hasn’t really got going yet and we’re already on the third set of international matches which, in my opinion, completely ruins the momentum of the Premier League.
Us supporters are deprived of seeing our team for a weekend, club managers will complain about losing their players again, big clubs will withdraw players from national duty with slight knocks and the national team managers will complain about the limited time they get to work with their squads. In this day and age of cosmopolitan football clubs have players from all over the world so it’s quite normal for your star player to have a ten hour flight out to his own country and then back again, often arriving home the day before his next Premier League fixture, giving his club manager a real headache.
Aside from scrapping international football completely there’s only one solution I can think of. But first a quick question and answer session.
What’s the best thing about international football? Easy – tournaments, seeing your country play regularly and improving as the team spends more time together.
What’s the worst thing about the Premier League fixture list? Easy – the continual international breaks.
What do national managers want? Easy – more time with their players.
What do club managers want? Easy – their players not being taken away from them five or six times a season.
My solution? Instead of repeated short international breaks have one long one each season. Shut down the domestic leagues for a month and play a host of international games. If there are five other teams in your qualifying group then play them all Saturday Wednesday Saturday Wednesday Saturday and even have time to fit a friendly in before if you like. Then the following season stop the domestic league again and play the return fixtures, simple.
The national team manager then gets a full month with his players to work on tactics, formations, player bonding and anything else he likes, resulting in a national side that plays better football and hopefully making the international fixtures more watchable. Supporters can actually see the qualifying groups taking shape and one result will feel like it has more bearing on the next rather than winning or losing a match and having to wait six weeks to see if it has any effect on whether you will make it to the next big tournament or not.
Club managers will only lose their players once, giving them fewer interruptions when trying to mould a team from their expensively assembled squads. Look at Brendan Rodgers, trying to introduce a new philosophy and style of football requires continuity and consistency but he has been denied this as his players keep jetting off to play for their countries. And he’s not the only manager who suffers in this way, they all do.
The toll taken on player’s fitness with the constant flying and alteration of sleep patterns will be reduced, instead of travelling 50,000 miles on a plane for international duty over the course of a season Luis Suarez would only be airborne for 10,000 miles. Surely this is a massive benefit and could even extend the careers of top players. Not to mention the environmental effects of fewer flights.
And for those of us who simply find international football pointless, dull and boring we will know exactly when to book our two weeks abroad in the sun. Or what date to arrange your wedding for without fear of missing your local derby. It’s all good.
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