China Cup breaks can cost clubs
IS this latest international break nothing more than FIFA and the national associations cynically flouting their power?
There are currently no proper tournaments for clubs to release players for, so they’re sanctioning new ones, like the Wanda Sports Holdings-sponsored China Cup, which gave Gareth Bale’s Wales, under boss Ryan Giggs (below), a nice pay-day.
Clubs are criticised for sending players to the other side of the world on pre-season tours, but, as we approach the climax of the season, national associations are flying 6,000 miles to play in invented cups.
What if a player has picked up an injury which rules him out for the run-in and has a direct effect on a club winning a trophy, gaining Champions League football or being relegated?
As demands grow for a winter break to ensure players aren’t burnt out for the summer international tournaments, how long before clubs, who invest millions in those players, demand that FIFA don’t burn them out for the finale of their domestic season?
Making countries pay the players’ huge wages every day they are away with them might be a way of ensuring they cut down on these pointless interruptions to the season.