Too much football?

With news of Heskey's recall to the England squad this week, most of us began laughing at Steve Mclaren and his ineptness. But it just occurred to me that the current state of the England national team with all its injuries shouldn't trigger a discussion about recalling an old player vs. blooding a youngster, but rather about implementing a winter break and getting rid of the Carling Cup.

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Knee ligament injuries that keep players out for 6 months are all too frequent nowadays, as are a whole variety of problems with muscles, tendons, toes, and various other bones.

A squad of 20 players is now considered too small because of all the competitions a team is involved in.

Players are forced to skip a big competition like the Copa America just to keep themselves fresh and get a proper break.

We've gone from having a game every weekend, to a game every 4 days, to every once in a while having a team forced to play 3 games in the space of 7 days.

Winning the most important trophies often bring more problems than glory - look at how Barcelona collapsed last season with (among other reasons) having to play the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup, and the World Club championship. The same thing happened with Sevilla this week, as they had to play 3 matches in a week despite a huge personal tragedy. Milan (who won the European Super Cup on Friday) dropped 2 points at home, and though Fiorentina played well, you could clearly see the Milan players' lack of energy towards the end of the match.

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Every sport has a proper break, but not football. Tennis noticed an increase in injuries and fatigue, and revamped their schedules. Our appetite for the sport is ruining the game. IMO these changes are needed:

1. Platini should concentrate on reducing the size of the CL, Uefa Cup, and Intertoto. In fact, he should do away with the latter completely and reallocate spots or reduce the number of teams that get into Europe. Also get rid of all these competitions which are mere curiosities but are not worth anything in true sporting terms - Super Cups, Confederations Cup, etc.

2. Each federation needs to seriously consider adapting the German approach - play the Cup as a pre-season tournament (England is the only league afaik that takes it seriously anyway)

3. Implement a mandatory winter break of at least 3-4 weeks.

4. In the long term, consider reducing the top leagues to 18 teams, and implement parachute payments to soften the blow for the extra 2 teams relegated the first year.

5. Since it is nearly impossible for a harmonised global calendar to be implemented, at least standardise the youth levels and reduce the overlap there. UEFA should also make it uniform in their federations, so Spain has the same youth structure as England, for example (right now Spanish clubs have B teams that play in the regular league structure, whereas Premiership clubs have Reserve teams playing in a separate league - what an utter waste of money and players - and then a whole host of U18, U16, etc. teams)


Long post, but any thoughts?

Agree with basically everything you wrote. Too many matches played these days, and this does not just have a negative effect on the health of the players, but on the quality of football also.

Kas..Everything makes sense implementing the above will give us stronger players and a higher quality of football. We fans are all soaked in football almost year round now maybe a cutback on messageboards would also be a good idea also........

Brian2468 wrote:Kas..Everything makes sense implementing the above will give us stronger players and a higher quality of football. We fans are all soaked in football almost year round now maybe a cutback on messageboards would also be a good idea also........

Lol, that is indeed the irony of this...in a way that post is kind of personal reflection, because I've been watching/reading about so much football in the past couple of years that every now and then I really do feel like I need to do an FC Bayern 2006 and take a break from it all.

Same here football has become over bearing I cannot get away from it. Wonder what would happen to the posters ...

Not so long ago, I took a long break, and almost did it again a few weeks ago. Club football in particular is going in a direction I don't like, the commercialisation of the game is going too far these days. It's appalling at times.

Sooner or later, I can see myself getting fed up with it for good. I will always love the game, love my club, but I can see myself forgetting about club football, and watching internationals only every now and then.

So could this explain why the English national side team is that poor?
But English sides usually do well in Europe.

I think the premiership should at least have a week of during the winter break. Just to cut off a little.

Alive and Kicking wrote:So could this explain why the English national side team is that poor?
But English sides usually do well in Europe.

I think the premiership should at least have a week of during the winter break. Just to cut off a little.

I definitely think it's a massive reason for their under-performances...club managers are always making sure their players are fit only for the club (hence the English clubs doing well in Europe) and don't value country. Plus with the Carling Cup as well, English players tend to be the most over-burdened of the big footballing powers.

When Sven was manager he made a formal presentation to the FA illustrating scientific data that shows players' performance would improve with even a short winter break. But of course, it was ignored. I understand that a big reason is the English tradition of having loads of games over the Christmas/Boxing Day/New Year period, but there's no reason a break cannot be implemented immediately after these games, until the 2nd or 3rd week of Jan., for example. Anyway the last 2 weeks of Jan. or 1st week of Feb. get dedicated to Cup matches.

I remember a couple of season ago, when Bolton had a quirk in their schedule - they were out of cups and their Premiership opponents had CL matches or something, so basically Bolton got almost a month off and Allardyce took his squad to Dubai for a break. That season they finished very strong.

kas wrote:With news of Heskey's recall to the England squad this week, most of us began laughing at Steve Mclaren and his ineptness. But it just occurred to me that the current state of the England national team with all its injuries shouldn't trigger a discussion about recalling an old player vs. blooding a youngster, but rather about implementing a winter break and getting rid of the Carling Cup.

----------------

Knee ligament injuries that keep players out for 6 months are all too frequent nowadays, as are a whole variety of problems with muscles, tendons, toes, and various other bones.

A squad of 20 players is now considered too small because of all the competitions a team is involved in.

Players are forced to skip a big competition like the Copa America just to keep themselves fresh and get a proper break.

We've gone from having a game every weekend, to a game every 4 days, to every once in a while having a team forced to play 3 games in the space of 7 days.

Winning the most important trophies often bring more problems than glory - look at how Barcelona collapsed last season with (among other reasons) having to play the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup, and the World Club championship. The same thing happened with Sevilla this week, as they had to play 3 matches in a week despite a huge personal tragedy. Milan (who won the European Super Cup on Friday) dropped 2 points at home, and though Fiorentina played well, you could clearly see the Milan players' lack of energy towards the end of the match.

--------------

Every sport has a proper break, but not football. Tennis noticed an increase in injuries and fatigue, and revamped their schedules. Our appetite for the sport is ruining the game. IMO these changes are needed:

1. Platini should concentrate on reducing the size of the CL, Uefa Cup, and Intertoto. In fact, he should do away with the latter completely and reallocate spots or reduce the number of teams that get into Europe. Also get rid of all these competitions which are mere curiosities but are not worth anything in true sporting terms - Super Cups, Confederations Cup, etc.

2. Each federation needs to seriously consider adapting the German approach - play the Cup as a pre-season tournament (England is the only league afaik that takes it seriously anyway)

3. Implement a mandatory winter break of at least 3-4 weeks.

4. In the long term, consider reducing the top leagues to 18 teams, and implement parachute payments to soften the blow for the extra 2 teams relegated the first year.

5. Since it is nearly impossible for a harmonised global calendar to be implemented, at least standardise the youth levels and reduce the overlap there. UEFA should also make it uniform in their federations, so Spain has the same youth structure as England, for example (right now Spanish clubs have B teams that play in the regular league structure, whereas Premiership clubs have Reserve teams playing in a separate league - what an utter waste of money and players - and then a whole host of U18, U16, etc. teams)


Long post, but any thoughts?

why use germany as an example for fewer injuries..didnt you see the game last week...they had more players missing than england through injuries.

I don't think our players are actually injured. I think they just don't want to play for McClaren. Its a career damaging decision to play under this current England squad

Oh, and if we're scrapping things, we may as well get rid of the League Cup. There's no need for two domestic cups, though I do like the fact that teams play players they wouldn't usually. It gives younger players valuable first team experience

This theory of not having any break could explain why, Henry often failed to impress during big tournaments such as the euro or the world cup, he played over 60 games a year (and was also rarely substituted) and he hardly didn't have any break to rest so therefore he was totally wasted.
More seriously, I remember Vieira, Henry and Pires saying that they were exhausted around May-June.

my wife always tells me there is too much football. I guess she is right after all...

Alive and Kicking wrote:This theory of not having any break could explain why, Henry often failed to impress during big tournaments such as the euro or the world cup, he played over 60 games a year (and was also rarely substituted) and he hardly didn't have any break to rest so therefore he was totally wasted.
More seriously, I remember Vieira, Henry and Pires saying that they were exhausted around May-June.

beckenbauer has also said england wont win a thing until we introduce a winter break...

It is definitely a very interesting point Kas has raised and one which has plenty of individual examples, not just English, to back it up- i.e Ronaldinho's "no show" at the WC 2006 after Barca's exahausting run all the way to the CL final, ditto Henry. In Euiro2004, the best players at the competition- Ronaldo, Robben, Rooney, Baros, and many of the Greek players, were all used sparingly during the season running up to the competition. The "big guns"- Figo, Beckham, Zidane, henry, etc all played heavy schedules and were all dissapointments.

The DFL is thinking of getting rid of the winter break in the German Bundesliga. One argument is, especially with regard to injuries, it would be much better for the players to only have one big break instead of two smaller breaks. Here in Germany we have about 6 weeks winter break for example, which means about 3 weeks holidays for the players, but also another three weeks preparation (training camps etc.) then to get fit again for the second part of the season.

Another idea is to place the football season more in the summer months. So we might have a football season from March to October then with one big break from November to February.

football games in July and August in Spain is not a good idea, so you'd be having skewed seasons for the different European countries. International games, CL etc. would then be a problem.

What about some midnight matches then in July in August in Spain. Could be fun...

Young players over here if they make it to the provincials play 35 includes tournaments games. 31 in 3 months then 4 in 2 days at the Provincial finals....... ..............Now thats plenty of football... .... the professionals have it easy.

There is one major differance the players can sub on and off when the ball goes out. As long as the Ref agrees. With a bench of 16 players the games plays like Hockey much faster and more intense plus the kids get to talk to the coach during the game to work on problems. These players for there age are really fit.

It's a good idea but it will never happen. Less football = less money.
A winter break is also a good idea, but how many teams would use it to go off on a tour of Asia or America?

Kas, agree with all you have said

I always said that Serie A moving from 18 to 20 teams was a step back - such popularist measures are usually very difficult to reverse as well. Adding two more rubbish teams has done NOTHING for Serie A, just increased the number of useless games for everyone.

I am glad that FIGC has reduced the coppa games and made it mostly a one leg affair. Finally a step in the right direction.

The only place I disagree with you kas are the supercups, they are usually one game affairs, and are mostly pre-season, so they are ok.