International Football – would we miss it?

[Anonymous]

If international football were to be ditched, would we miss it? obviously i cant speak for other countries but in england less and less people care about it. every time the international games come about people resent it and just wish domestic football would continue. then when it comes to the games people dont really watch them. wembley crowds are getting lower all the time. i remember a time when i wouldnt miss an england, same for all my friends and family. now no one cares. so much so that if it wasnt for football forums or twitter i wouldnt even know when england are playing. i think a lot of it has to do with the fact the england players dont really care about representing their country and also havent had an inspiring manager for god knows how long. i feel that international football in england is dead. what do other people think? whats it like in other countries? do people care? would you care if international tournaments and friendlies stopped? personally, i wouldnt!

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Have to disagree my cyber chum!

Granted, the pointless friendlies and about 80% of the qualifiers are major snooze feasts, but I love it when the actual tournament gets going every other summer. This summer was bloody awful without one to be honest.

What I would like to see, rather than the annoying breaks you get during the season, would simply have the qualifiers condensed somehow. Perhaps 60% or so played at the end of the “odd” seasons, then the rest played at the end of the “even” seasons before the Tournament kicks off. If you shortened the club seasons (and you would have a few extra weeks spare now) I see no reason why it wouldn’t work from a logistic reason.

Or just get rid of all the friendlies… having two friendlies in the middle of the season is just milking the fans and nothing else.

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[Editor]

It’s a good question Paxton but I have to agree with Chucky here. I love the big tournaments every other year. The qualifiers are generally boring, in my opinion, due to the fact we’re always one of the higher ranked teams. Something needs to be done to make sure the better teams are not having to play the San Marinos of this world, unless they’ve done more to justify their place amongst the better nations.

In terms of the pointless friendlies and qualifiers against the minnows, could the answer already be around the corner with this:

http://www.uefa.com/community/news/newsid=2079553.html

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[Nike19]

The positive from my point of view is that I still gain that feeling of excitement from when the national anthem is sung. The difference is however that the line ups have obviously changed over generations and it’s fair to accept we are where we are and won’t bring back nostalgia.

The face of football has changed as over the last 25 years, there are a lot less top quality English players as there are more continental players and more of the synergy has come from club football than when placed together as a nation.

Whatever opinions and feelings are of football fans, the Internationals have to be accommodated in the calendar especially when there is a major tournament around the corner.

As far as the debate goes over players, it’s a double-edge sword, because for a like Ben Woodburn to be considered on a regular basis at the International stage, he needs to be playing in the first team and for that to happen, he needs to be delivering so he is regularly selected.

Football Managers at the higher end as we know will be reluctant to put in the investment because of the objectives and expectations they themselves have to try and achieve knowing that their own tenure is at risk.

I can’t think if a happy medium that would suit everybody so will leave that with somebody else out there.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Nil… are you the new 9,nine,nien? Nice big long post without actually saying anything… 🙂

Steady Eddy, interesting link. However, I read it and got a headache. So there is going to be a mini-pre-qualifying tournament with six games each to help organize the pots for the qualifying tournament of 10 games each to find the qualifiers for the summer tournament that is scheduled to be expanded with 24 teams from the 55 teams odd that start in the mini-pre-qualifying tournament? With lots of play-offs involved so all the big-dogs get multiple chances to make sure they qualify? Then we get 6 groups of 4, with the top 2 plus 4 best 3rd places to go into the last 16 with thankfully actually starts to be a straight knock-out competition? Now watch Engerland fook it up!

Hmm… I would think they are trying to milk this even more because you know the buggers will still want pre-mini-qualifying-tournament-friendlies somewhere… 🙂

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[Mikus LFC]

Whilst some of the focus has moved ever more to club football, I think many fans do still care, and I’m not sure I subscribe that this mass moaning of international football actually reflects reality. I think as Paxton has touched on – fans are merely sick of underperforming England teams with players that seem half interested at times. The last real excitement for me over an England team was Euro 96. Why? Not just because we made the latter stages, but because you could see the players were so up for it, and there was an actual plan. Obviously the premier league didn’t then dominate the way it does now, but I think that’s a more secondary reason. I think a lot comes from the manager, and for the last two decades we have generally installed managers who are more idealistic & safe than pragmatic (as seen when they have picked the best XI vs the most effective XI). But not just, there’s simply hasn’t been any charisma about the managers – in most of our games I generally see a negative plan whereby we are only bailed out by individual brilliance – this is exactly what happened the other night – we needed the brilliance of Diers flick to get the ball rolling and then the brilliance of Rashford to seal it. When was the last time we saw a real England team goal because of a positive coherent plan from a manager? You just don’t see it. You just tend to see players increasingly frustrated, ending with them resorting to pot shots around the box. Imagine what a Klopp type figure could do for England.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

I really think England should get a real “man-manager” involved somewhere, someone like Harry Redknapp or somebody…

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[Nike19]

Chucky, I am embracing the fact that other nations are gradually closing the gap on England and coming good themselves – good to see for example, more of a fight from Scotland and Wales.

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[Nike19]

Chucky, with you on that one at 3:25. He’s be perfect to get the players to loosen up and just express themselves with freedom.

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[Anonymous]

i just feel that there is so little interest in international football nowadays and as i said people resent it. banjos idea of playing all games in the summer is ok but then it messes with preseason preparations. even when england win 4-0 they get berated. there is no passion for the national team or from the players. people want them to fail so they can have a go. they get all hyped up pre tournament and think it will end with success and then when england inevitably go out in the groups or first knockout round they turn on them and say they’ve always been nothing. as i said i dont know what its like in other countries, but i dont think many would miss it. do you ever think ‘wish there was international football this weekend?’

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Paxo… I was kinda thinking at the end of the season, shouldn’t get in the way of any pre-season nonsense. Scrap the 3/4 weekends during the season and shorten the season by a couple of weeks each end…

With regards to your comment “wish there was Belinda in my bed international football this weekend” totally agree, I’ve never said it myself, but that’s because it gets in the way of the Prem. Let’s have the club games, get them sorted, and then have the internationals, get them sorted, then have summer….. repeat… sounds like a piece of fried gold to me!

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[Editor]

I’ve never said “I wish there was International football this weekend” but every other summer I say “I wish it was a tournament year this year.”

Chucky, I haven’t read it in much detail. I just remember it being bandied about as a solution to the growing disillusionment around International friendlies. The very fact a European wide solution was being sought suggests it is probably not only a problem in this country.

The next generation of football fans seem far more interested in the Champions League than any International tournaments so I think something had to be done. I don’t think kids grow up anymore dreaming of scoring the winning goal in a World Cup final. They dream of hearing that Champions League music as they run out onto the pitch. So, even though I would miss it, I think more needs to be done to retain the interest of the next generations.

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[Chucky McChuckface]

The quality of international football with the miss-matches is one thing, but I think the bigger problem is the timing of it all which causes resentment (or at least it does in my house!).

Boring summer with no Euros/WC, finally football comes back and BAM!! three games in and we stop for a fortnight to for Malta vs England…

As for the European Wide “Solution”, I think they’ve missed the point entirely and used the excuse to cram in even more games to suit their own cash-revenue agenda….. (remind you of any other ‘recent’ ground-breaking cash related rules?).

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[Hightown hope]

I’m with you, Banjo. You making a late bid to be boss of FIFA? Belinda would be round like a shot then!

The break up of the season with internationals is a nightmare, particularly the early season games. We get 3 games in to a new season, and then everything is put on hold…and the fact that it coincides with the transfer window closing, the whole thing is unsatisfactory to say the least. The trouble with your idea of having all the friendlies at the end of the season, all you are effectively doing is creating another tournament, but this one is just a boring one!

I love the bi-annual tournaments and am gutted whenever England miss out. I loved Italia 90 and Euro 96, but maybe that was just a different era pre-Premiership. I would say I far prefer seeing Liverpool win trophies than England, but I’m not quite old enough to remember 1966, so I wouldn’t know. I do know that the country would go ballistic if, by some remarkable set of circumstances England found themselves in a major final…but that ain’t going to happen!

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Nil… who said anything about the friendlies at the end of the season? Scrap them all together, they’re just a cash cow anyway, and play 6/7 qualifiers in odd years over a 3 week period, and the rest the following year before the tourney… be like a proper mini-practise tournement.. got to be more effective than the occasional one-off friendly against Iceland or something….

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[Nike19]

You are right Chucky about the friendlies to a large degree because we don’t really seem to take any learning from it and a lot of the time, we end up back to square one with the same problems.

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[Nike19]

Chucky, on 5:59 not sure whether your reply was meant for the Editor?

I was just checking my replies but didn’t mention anything on friendlies itself other than agreeing with you that from an England point of view, just when we think we’ve got it sussed out, we’re pegged back to square one (at least as far as performances go).

As an overview of this topic, I feel from living experience over the last 25 years that the currency/value of the Premier League has strengthened to the point as though playing for one’s country is second best (certainly as far as England goes).

I can try and unearth my thoughts, but not clever enough to offer solutions – that’s to delegate to somebody else 😉 🙂

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[Careworkerlfc]

In a word NO

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[Chucky McChuckface]

Sorry Nil, it was Double H who mentioned the friendlies at the end of the season… just saw the Pool badge and thought of you…. Ahhhhhhh…. 🙂

Still think the majority of us footy lovers love international football but only when it actually counts for something. Friendlies in the middle of the season? No, that doesn’t count. Qualifiers against minnows? No, that doesn’t count. Actual games where the result actually matters? Yes, that does count!

To me, the qualifiers (just going to ignore friendlies altogether!) are a bit like the group games in the CL, nobody really cares and you can predict the result in about 80% plus of the games anyway.

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[nine nine nine]

1) Like it or not there will always be international football.

2) International teams need friendlies for squad development. International Managers can’t be expected to get tactics and player selections right without playing friendlies in preparation for qualifiers and tournaments.

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[Author]

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