Given fixture congestion caused by meaningless internationals,we may be seeing some "business decisions" in the future.
We've seen them enough times in the past. And I mean over the last 60 years not the last 5 or 10. That's why FIFA has tried clamping down.
1. You're conflating two things in the second paragraph. A club refusing to release a player is different then a player refusing a call up of their own volition. 2. Back to the first paragraph, I know of no examples where a player said, "I don't want to play for my country" and then actually was suspended from domestic games, though I know that has been threatened/been an issue a handful of times. 3. It's a pedantic conversation, you and I both know that 99.9%+ of the time a player says, "I don't want to play international football this tournament/window/in the future" it's no problem at all for the player/club. Certainly for the purposes of this thread, Tyler Adams/AFCB would not be facing any problems from USSF/FIFA if Tyler declined call ups.
I am not privy to which players would have preferred not to go to AFCON but decided not to withdraw because of the threat of repurcussions.
FYP But you're right, there are only so many games that players can be fully fit for - not play in but be ready to play in - in a season. The wear-and-tear on their bodies is obvious but the rear difficulty is going to be mental. As Johan Cryuff said, "football is a game played with your head. Your feet are just there to help you." The way things are headed, you're going to see more and more competitions that will be treated like the Carabao Cup: play the U-23s until the quarter finals and players will withdraw from different international cycles
🎙️ Andoni Iraola on Tyler Adams injury update:"Tyler will not be fit for the Leicester game, but he’s almost there. I think he’s going to train fully with the team during international break. He will not be involved in the game tomorrow." pic.twitter.com/UKtBsfavEj— USMNT Otaku 🇺🇸 (@USMNTOtaku) October 4, 2024
I really miss watching this guy play at his highest level. <fingers-crossed> (for like the 40th time...)
One of the interesting things is the congestion is really with the bigger clubs. A team like Bournemouth not so much as they aren’t playing in Europe and they don’t typically go far in domestic cups (and are never going to play in the Club World Cup). Whereas a Man City or Arsenal will play an insane amount of games.
Whether or not - and to what extent - FIFA can penalize clubs not releasing players for a FIFA sanctioned game/tournament, it’s still crazy to me that FIFA has any power over club football! I could understand that “power” if the player gets injured, and FIFA has to compensate the club in some way: pay the player’s salary for the time he’s out injured/recovering, pay for the player’s medical expenses, basically, be on the hook for some/all of the costs associated with the player getting injured on national team duty in the above scenarios, ok, I see why FIFA would have power over a club. Because as it stands, it’s nice to be FIFA, but sucks to be the club.
They have the power because the national federations agree to abide by their rules and the leagues are affiliated to the national federations. If a non-affiliated league wants to sign players they wouldn't be subject to FIFA's rules.
IMO, this is a major factor in FIFA's refusal to budge on the expanded CWC... because the influence of clubs are expanding internationally, UEFA is better positioned to be the power broker for the sport in the future simply because the largest and most valuable clubs are in Europe. By forcefully expanding the CWC, FIFA is also expanding the power it can wield over clubs.
It’s also just the ongoing quest for more revenue as that’s how Infantino keeps the rank and file happy and himself in power.
I wonder how feasible it would be for the national federations of the Major Teams (UEFA / Conmebol) to look into breaking away and forming an alternative to FIFA. UEFA, especially, might have more motivation since they don't have to kowtow to FIFA trying to create a pseudo competitor to Champions League (aka FIFA CWC) and won't have nonsense like upsetting their schedule to fit into a Winter World Cup - which you know is coming with Saudi Arabia certain to be awarded the 2030? 2034? World Cup.
Yeah, FIFA more-or-less picked futsal over synthetic turf indoor. Documents like RSTP have special annexes governing 11-a-side alternatives like futsal and beach soccer. But that means that leagues like MASL are technically outside the purview of FIFA and don't have to abide by their rules. Wasn't Ze Roberto playing for an MASL club a few years ago?
I mean, anything is possible (see: the "Super League" controversy from a few years ago), but it wouldn't be easy OR cheap... there are billions of dollars of revenue at stake on all sides. And UEFA is problematic in its own right... the players kinda hate the way that they keep expanding / lengthening the Champions / Europa leagues, and the only teams that like UEFA Nations League are the minnows... the only reason any of the feds respect it is because they (smartly, IMO) handcuffed it to Euros & World Cup qualification.
16 of UEFA's 19 man Congress are elected by the member nations who benefit financially from FIFA. The other 3 are elected by the clubs. It makes no sense for the majority of UEFA feds like Hungary, Lithuania, Norway and the Faroe Islands to break away from FIFA. I could envisage the top 5 nations breaking away from both FIFA and UEFA, and taking another half dozen Euro nations, along with Brazil, Argentina, the US and Mexico but that's a long way away and difficult politically.
I don’t know if there’s NFL style revenue sharing, but if yes, I think the nations mentioned above are the money makers, and might tire of having to share revenue with teams who can’t bring in the dollars, pesos, pounds, etc. The Big Boys can.
We're all just hamstrung by a lack of news ...and going through withdrawals. It will stop as soon as (if?) Adams starts actually playing again.
emphasis on the "if" .... he has had so many soft tissue issues over the last few years .... he just may not have the physical strength and conditioning to last at the professional level ... and Gio is apparently the same. I hope I am wrong - but the situation just does not seem promising for their sustained good health ...
Back in training: In his #BOUARS press conference, the boss has confirmed that Tyler Adams has been back in training and is in contention 🇺🇸👊 pic.twitter.com/NguMqfBCQ4— AFC Bournemouth 🍒 (@afcbournemouth) October 18, 2024
I hope he and his club have learned from rushing him. I love his competitive streak but for his own good he needs to take it slowly and speak up if there's any twinges.