The UEFA Needless League .. a competition too far for the Prem’s knackered stars
THERE have been many football competitions whose sole destiny was to end up in obscure pub quiz questions.
The likes of The Watney Cup, Mercantile Credit Centenary Trophy, Texaco Cup and the Screen Sport Super Cup, which were greeted with as much warmth as Andy Townsend’s Tactics Truck.
My favourite waste of space was the third-fourth place FA Cup play-offs in the early Seventies which the Suits thought would be a big preCup Final money-spinner.
A mate went to watch Everton play Stoke at Selhurst Park on the eve of the 1971 final, along with 5,030 other fans, and said he felt like he’d strayed into an Agoraphobics Anonymous meeting.
Anyone making it into the 8,300-capacity Stadion HNK Rijeka when Croatia play England tomorrow night in the UEFA Nations League might be feeling the same, due to Croatia’s fans being banned, England’s being told not to travel and it being effectively a trumped-up friendly version of a World Cup semi-final that’s still fresh in the memory.
If Jurgen Klopp (right) is watching at home it will only confirm his view the season is being needlessly interrupted, for the second time in a month, by “the most senseless competition in world football”.
Small nations like
San Marino get the chance to play teams at their level and avoid thrashings. Countries like Scotland are thrown an extra, if highly convoluted, lifeline to the Euros play-offs and it lets national managers feel they’re earning their crust. UEFA say they introduced it to eliminate “meaningless international friendlies”.
But these games still feel like friendlies as there’s no downside to defeat. So where’s the justification in taking up three fortnightly blocks of the season’s autumn fixtures so soon after a long World Cup? It’s been 90 days since England played in Russia and 89 for Croatia. During that short time many of those players will have played in five competitions – the World Cup, domestic league, European competition, domestic cup and Nations League.
And they will have had only two to three weeks holiday to recover from a 10-month season. Any wonder many are struggling for form or managers fear for their health?
Many England-based players will be playing twice a week, without a winter break, until May, or June if they reach the Champions League final.
Then, if their country has done well in the Nations League, they’ll have another mini-tournament to sort out who wins it, before pre-season tours, new club season and then straight into UEFA’s Euros qualifiers.
The majority of fans, players and managers would rather be getting on with their club season and will spend this fortnight sweating on injury news. A risk increased because, as Klopp says, national managers can ignore a club’s pleas to rest a player on the grounds they have a competitive game to win.
The only people it really makes sense to are UEFA, who can offer a stronger defence for dragging players away from their clubs and the national federations who can strike more lucrative TV deals.
But there are only so many competitive games players can be asked to play before serious injuries start happening.
How long before the top clubs collectively flex their muscles and refuse to release their players on the grounds they’re unduly risking employees whose health is potentially worth tens of millions a season to them?