The current system of spreading international games over the season creates the eternal Club v. country fights. And the clubs have a point. Especially the players who play for NT from a different continent are completely unusable for the first game after coming back from national team games. Traveling between continents once a month really doesn’t help anyone. The solution I’m proposing is to play all NT games after the end of the European club season. The club season could be shortened by using the 10 or so dates now reserved for NT. And you could then play 10-12 NT games in 6 weeks. That would still mean the players would have at least 2 months between the last NT game and the start of the club season.
it would feel like a world cup, and besides, teams could end up losing their players through injury for all their matches. on top of that alot of players wait till the end of the season to get niggling injuries operated on and be all fit for the newest season. i see what yer sayin, but i for one like the matches stretched out over a long period
Also, it's a system designed entirely for convenience of the main European powers. Schedules in Scandinavia, North America, South America, and parts of Asia don't dovetail very well with this plan. Plus, if a player is hurt at that time of the year, they could go two entire years without wearing the national team colors. You'd probably lose a ton of fan interest in the teams, the national team players would be far more burned out than the rest of the players in every league, and fewer players would get the opportunity to play for their country.
and that ignores the simple fact that the European season is not the only season in the world. Why should world football be made to revolve around when the europeans choose to play? playing during THEIR schedule would be inconvenient to those playing in mexico, brazil, argentina, the usa and others who choose not to play from august or september to may. there is no simple answer, because of the diversity of the world of football. we all have to deal with that and guys will have to make decisions on a case by case, team by team basis ......... but that's what makes this sport so great around the world. fifa cowtowing to europe is not the answer.
The national team players are already more burn out than others. This would actually help them. They would be playing the same number of games only they wouldn’t have to make long trips ten times a year but only once. Micheal Ballack has only played 3 three times for Germany since the WC and hasn’t had a long term injury. The possibility of getting one major injury is the same as getting a lot of minor ones. There would be a rise in interest because the fans would know that for the next 6 weeks their NT is playing and that’s the only thing they would be concentrated on. That’s what happened in S. America 2 years ago when 4-5 rounds of qualifying were played right after the end of the European season. Look, I don’t like the fact that almost all top players play in four European leagues. I would really like it if there was enough money in Brasil to keep most of their top players. But as long as that is not the case the schedule should me arranged around the top Euro leagues. The WC is also scheduled after the Euro leagues. Other leagues just have to find a way around that. You might call it unfair, but that’s how it is.