There were a couple of games involving British teams at the weekend that really mattered.
Gareth Bale booked Wales’ ticket to the World Cup finals for the first time in 64 years and Jordan Maguire-Drew’s play-off final winner sent Grimsby Town back into the Football League. Meanwhile in Budapest, a tired and flat England team were beaten by Hungary in a competition Jurgen Klopp accurately describes as “one of the most ridiculous ideas in the world of football.”
Then it was on to Munich, where Gareth Southgate’s lethargic side scraped a fortunate draw and Kalvin Phillips’s rehabilitation was cut short as he hobbled off after 15 minutes with Raheem Sterling and Kieran Trippier almost joining him. And there are still two more Nations League games to endure before these knackered players can finally end their season’s work.
Kevin De Bruyne was right to ask why this “unimportant” tournament has been foisted on players who are now given “little more than three weeks break every 12 months.” Especially when a World Cup in gruelling heat has been shoe-horned into the middle of next season. You don’t have to be a medical expert to realise that with so much football being played by the top professionals since the game resumed after Covid their bodies are crying out for, and fully deserving of, a well-earned rest.
Come Tuesday, England will have played 22 games in the last year and 12 days. To put that in context Newcastle played only 40 fixtures in the entirety of last season and Aston Villa played 41. Factor in that many internationals come from teams who played as many as 63 high-pressure games in the last year and the strain on bodies is obvious.
And there is no let up. Due to the six-week break for the winter World Cup and a fortnight’s gap in September for more Nations League fixtures, next season's Community Shield opener is on July 31, the Premier League runs until the end of May and the Champions League Final is June 10. Can you imagine how demanding that is going to be for those who go far in Qatar? Some point out these players are obscenely well paid for their work so should just get on with it, but that misses the point. The injuries, and loss of form, brought about by fatigue impact their clubs and the fans who help pay their wages.
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This gradual monopolising of the calendar by the international game seems to have gone into overdrive in recent years. Look back only a decade and you will see a different picture. From June 4, 2011 to June 24, 2012, despite England reaching the quarter-finals of the Euros in Spain, they played only 13 matches. Nine fewer than the 22 in the past calendar year. Why?
I’m sure there are some England fans who view the national side as their club and would dearly like them to play all-year round. But the vast majority of fans want to see the World Cup and the Euros played every two years, with fewer qualification games and no pointless vanity competitions like the UEFA Nations League clogging up the calendar. This punishing overkill is all down to FIFA, UEFA and the international associations, who have nothing to lose through players being run into the ground as they chase more wealth, power and kudos.
But there is only so much blood you can get out of a stone, especially when the stones are increasingly acquiring all the power in the game Keep pointlessly abusing players’ health and it won’t be long before they legally bond together and demand control over the international fixture list. And if they do attempt a coup, unlike the European Super League, football’s ruling elites will find little sympathy from the fans.
Liverpool will not lie down
I recently attended a meeting of Liverpool supporters’ group Spirit of Shankly about the Champions League final disgrace in Paris. To say the packed room was angry is an understatement. A man told how his wife was pushed to the ground by police, handcuffed and jailed as her two small children looked on and a wheelchair-bound fan told of how he was “fearful for his life” watching gangs of locals rob fans while police did nothing.
There were countless tales of muggings, tear-gassing and sub-standard ticket machines rejecting legitimate tickets, which gave rise to French politicians’ wild exaggeration of fakes and deflection of blame. But there was also a united desire to put this right. To clear the name of Liverpool fans who were slandered by both the French government and UEFA. Hearing that some of the politicians, lawyers, experts and activists who doggedly pursued the truth after Hillsborough are already on board this time, I’d say the Suits in Paris and Nyon won’t know what’s hit them.
If we’ve learned one thing these past 33 years it’s that lies and cover-ups eventually unravel if there is enough determination and courage to succeed. And there is, messieurs, there most certainly is.
