Time to end the international breaks

[rebel]

The big problem is there are far too many countries in qualification for tournaments. They've kept increasing them to ridiculous numbers.
Malta are never going to win the World Cup. If they want the smaller countries to compete, then Malta, Latvia etc should have combined squad represent them in qualification.

It's embarrassing that FIFA think they can compete at the same level. So less matches all round.   

Norwich are never going to win the league, but they still turn up every week.

I don't think the issue in qualification is more countries, although the European Championship finals is now bloated with 24 nations, and the group stage rendered close to meaningless.

The qualification issue is the complete mismatch between the upper and lower quartile European football nations. I've watched England play Lithuania and Liechtenstein and the gulf in quality is immense. All the lower quartile nations have going for them is organisation, fitness and one or two players of second tier domestic league standard. But the international calendar gets fuller. Three internationals in a week? Not interested.

It's all bloated, just look at Liechtenstein, they got thumped by Italy 5 = 0, Italy have been dire in recent matches, that could easily have been 10 - 0 earlier in the year.

[Penfold]

The big problem is there are far too many countries in qualification for tournaments. They've kept increasing them to ridiculous numbers.
Malta are never going to win the World Cup. If they want the smaller countries to compete, then Malta, Latvia etc should have combined squad represent them in qualification.

It's embarrassing that FIFA think they can compete at the same level. So less matches all round.   

Norwich are never going to win the league, but they still turn up every week.

I don't think the issue in qualification is more countries, although the European Championship finals is now bloated with 24 nations, and the group stage rendered close to meaningless.

The qualification issue is the complete mismatch between the upper and lower quartile European football nations. I've watched England play Lithuania and Liechtenstein and the gulf in quality is immense. All the lower quartile nations have going for them is organisation, fitness and one or two players of second tier domestic league standard. But the international calendar gets fuller. Three internationals in a week? Not interested.

It's all bloated, just look at Liechtenstein, they got thumped by Italy 5 = 0, Italy have been dire in recent matches, that could easily have been 10 - 0 earlier in the year.

My feeling is that, like the FA Cup, these smaller teams should play earlier. The goal being that (1) playing each other means that they have an opportunity to win games and (2) they get the chance to play the big teams should they progress.

I agree that the current group stages are too bloated. Also doesn't do much for credibility when teams make 11 changes for matches.

[MartyFFC]

World Cup every 2 years if Arsene Wenger and FIFA get their way, so get ready for double the number of WC qualifiers.....

[grandad]

I no longer watch International games. Long gone are the days where a player played for their National side just for the honour & the cap.

[Willham]

When football started to be full of PLAYERS like jack grealish, sterling and kieron dier rather than PEOPLE like paul gascoigne, sheringham and the nicest man Alan Shearer, that's why I stopped watching international football.

[Colton F.C.]

The constant interuption of the league programe does nothing for football.

Qualification for international tournaments should all take place in the summer.  It might be a bit crowded there for fixtures with the proposed biannual World Cups but wtf.

We'll let you tell Mitro

Well I may be able to escape.  There is a possibility he has some residual blurred vision (hopefully in full working order on Saturday).

[Jules]

Cant stand international breaks. Players coming back tired and injured. Affects team selection and momentum. Scrap them. International football is outdated, it's no longer the pinnacle of the game. It is secondary to the champions league and domestic premier league.

[Colton F.C.]

Cant stand international breaks. Players coming back tired and injured. Affects team selection and momentum. Scrap them. International football is outdated, it's no longer the pinnacle of the game. It is secondary to the champions league and domestic premier league.

Harsh.  I think most enjoy the tournaments in the summer.

[Jules]

Cant stand international breaks. Players coming back tired and injured. Affects team selection and momentum. Scrap them. International football is outdated, it's no longer the pinnacle of the game. It is secondary to the champions league and domestic premier league.

Harsh.  I think most enjoy the tournaments in the summer.

Just my personal opinion. I am just not interested in international games. Maybe there is too much football on to have these games too.

[Plodder]

I am in favour of international breaks as they help to safeguard the importance of international football.  That being said, I would not be averse to a review of the qualifying and tournament formats for the World Cup and the European Championships, but that would be with the aim of making the international scene more interesting rather than for the sake of clubs.

[jarv]

So, I just read on here FOUR players on duty return with problems.  2 americans, dog tired and the serb and welshman being assessed. This is absolutely ridiculous and maddening. :031:

[Jim©]

I guess the flip side to these injury  issues is that we've got a squad with international quality players, which is what we all want. International sport IS the pinnacle- look at tournaments and the hype, fever, joy it brings.
Gone is the era of Ara Bedrossian being our only international (actually I'm not even sure he played for Cyprus)!

[Penfold]

Cant stand international breaks. Players coming back tired and injured. Affects team selection and momentum. Scrap them. International football is outdated, it's no longer the pinnacle of the game. It is secondary to the champions league and domestic premier league.

Harsh.  I think most enjoy the tournaments in the summer.

Just my personal opinion. I am just not interested in international games. Maybe there is too much football on to have these games too.

I've a radical plan. Make the Champions League for champions only. That would reduce games.

Never going to happen as big clubs would cry about money.

[toshes mate]

I've a radical plan. Make the Champions League for champions only. That would reduce games.

Those were the days, my friend ...

[Deeping_white]

Surely it would just be sensible to scrap the 3-4 week long international breaks in favour of running the domestic season through in one go, which would mean that in most cases it would end in early-mid April, and then have a month of fulfilling all of the international friendlies/qualifiers before the players then get a month off before pre-season starts. It'd also give countries longer prep for summer tournaments so is a win win all round

[Logicalman]

The big problem is there are far too many countries in qualification for tournaments. They've kept increasing them to ridiculous numbers.
Malta are never going to win the World Cup. If they want the smaller countries to compete, then Malta, Latvia etc should have combined squad represent them in qualification.

It's embarrassing that FIFA think they can compete at the same level. So less matches all round.   

On the same basis, should domestic football just be reduced to teams capable of winning competitions?

It would make everything more competitive, is it fun watching your team lose 28 matches in the Prem out of 38 matches?

If 5 of the smaller nations banded together they would stand a better chance of doing something special.

International football is a bit like the 'Eurovision Song Contest' at the moment, same countries at the bottom.   

Taking that to the extremes then, perhaps the World Cup could be just between 4 teams from each confederation, by having just 4 teams of players from that confederation, then who should have the right, or what criteria should be used, to decide which players from each country are selected, and which one's are not?

Domestically how about reducing each town or city to just one representative club? I know that is a silly extreme example, but how would we feel as fans if that was a real proposition? About the same as fans from each Country that would be affected by merging Countries I would suspect.

Not trying to be confrontational at all, but I obviously feel that if the World Cup is there so that each Country can put a team in to represent that Country and the preliminaries are there for each confederation.

[MartyFFC]

Watching teams put 6+ goals past the likes of Gibraltar and San Marino is utterly pointless. That said, the way money-grabbing FIFA are going, there will be 168 teams in a yearly WC

[Forever Fulham]

I'm torn.  Tim Ream is playing like Tim of old, his form and impact returned.   But he's nearing the end of his career.  He's older.  His body will take longer to recover between games, longer to recover from injuries, large and small.  The back line has gelled.  They communicate well now.  Why risk it all by accepting a call up from the USMNT?  It's not worth it.  He's had years to play for his country.   But his club is paying his salary, and we have a strong prospect of going back up, stronger than ever, keeping our best players.  So...