Old men with even older ideas?
Old men with even older ideas?
The international club football break exists in Europe mainly because there’s too many World Cup or European Championship group qualification games. Too many minor footballing nations have meant too many interruptions (for seemingly pointless David and Goliath style games) to the now far more popular, interesting and more lucrative club football calendar.
At the risk of going down the “it was better in the good old days” (it was frankly), those old enough to remember the days before the Iron Curtain came down giving way to multiple nations springing up, will remember a consistent domestic season with few or no breaks and international football qualifiers that excited football fans.
A quickly knocked up example of the 8 groups based on the recent 2018 tournament in Russia (with Russia already qualified as hosts) could be:
England-Swed-Hungary-Cyp
Germany-Switz-Norway-Scot
France-Austria-Denmark-Lux
Spain-Wales-Bulgaria -Finland
Portugal-Poland-R.O.I-Israel
Italy-N.Ireland-Slovakia-Greece
Belgium-Ukraine-Iceland-Turk
Holland-Croatia-Czech- Rom
There would hardly be a meaningless game which makes it far more interesting. And if there’s one eye on the financial element, surely far more interest means far more money generated?
Back to the present day, these international breaks can be ended by splitting the European qualification process into to main and minor group pools. The main pool would be made up of groups of 4 of the top 32 European international footballing nations, all seeded so each group has a nation from predetermined pools of teams ranked 1 to 4. There would only be 6 qualification games to play over a period of around 18 months. Games would be played on a Wednesday evening. I’m fairly certain that any football fan would rather see their club in action at the weekend instead of having a void because a damp squib of an international is taking place. Those fans of non EPL or EFL Championship clubs would probably feel the same way too?
As far as the English domestic schedule is concerned, no EPL or EFL Championship games for the previous weekend of an international game would kick off later than 3pm on the Saturday to maximise rest and international squad time. No EPL or EFL Championship game would kick off before 3pm on the following Saturday to allow for a little more rest & post game international squad time.
The international club football break exists in Europe mainly because there’s too many World Cup or European Championship group qualification games. Too many minor footballing nations have meant too many interruptions (for seemingly pointless David and Goliath style games) to the now far more popular, interesting and more lucrative club football calendar.
At the risk of going down the “it was better in the good old days” road (it was frankly), those old enough to remember the days before the iron curtain came down giving way to multiple nations springing up, will remember a consistent domestic season with few or no breaks and international football qualifiers that excited football fans.
Back to the present day, these international breaks can be ended by splitting the European qualification process into to main and minor group pools. The main pool would be made up of groups of 4 of the top 32 European international footballing nations, all seeded so each group has a nation from predetermined pools of teams ranked 1 to 4. There would only be 6 qualification games to play over a period of around 18 months. Games would be played on a Wednesday evening. I’m fairly certain that any football fan would rather see their club in action at the weekend instead of having a void because a damp squib of an international is taking place. Those fans of non EPL or EFL Championship clubs would probably feel the same way too?
As far as the English domestic schedule is concerned, no EPL or EFL Championship games for the previous weekend of an international game would kick off later than 3pm on the Saturday to maximise rest and international squad time. No EPL or EFL Championship game would kick off before 3pm on the following Saturday to allow for a little more rest & post game international squad time.
A quickly knocked up example of the 8 groups based on the recent 2018 tournament in Russia (with Russia already qualified as hosts) could be:
England-Swed-Hungary-Cyp
Germany-Switz-Norway-Scot
France-Austria-Denmark-Lux
Spain-Wales-Bulgaria -Finland
Portugal-Poland-R.O.I-Israel
Italy-N.Ireland-Slovakia-Greece
Belgium-Ukraine-Iceland-Turk
Holland-Croatia-Czech- Rom
There would hardly be a meaningless game which makes it far more interesting. And if there’s one eye on the financial element, surely far more interest means far more money generated?
