FIFA should rank importance of international fixtures...or risk more club v country farces
WHILE Aston Villa were getting done 3-0 by Chelsea on Saturday, two of their top players — Emi Martinez and Emi Buendia — were training in Croatia in Argentina kits following the red-list farce of their country’s game in Brazil.
The common consensus among supporters is that Martinez and Buendia love playing for Argentina, are Copa America champions, and are fighting for a place to play with Lionel Messi at the last World Cup before he retires.
On each of those points, I’m with the players entirely.
The fact of the matter is, though, they are primarily employed, on rather lucrative contracts, to play week in, week out by Aston Villa, not the Argentine association.
So when circumstances are as extraordinary as they have been, FIFA sh oul d b e yielding to global governments and exercising flexibility and understanding, so international teams rather than individual clubs lose out.
Let’s say Villa get relegated in May because they have lost one more game than their nearest rivals.
I’m not saying the outcome against Chelsea would have been different if they’d had those players involved but, likewise, we’ll never know if Villa might have won a point or three.
As a result, clubs will be entitled to feel once bitten, twice shy when the situation rears its head again in three weeks’ time during the next international
break. That leaves them with two options.
They can tell their players not to go and risk FIFA censure, or lean on them to come up with some sort of tactical injury that rules them out, as some clubs used to do with regularity.
I never did like the latter and I don’t want to hear of it now, but in such extraordinary circumstances, I’d understand it if they did.
Players need reminding where their bread is buttered, but that’s not to say I don’t have some sympathy with Martinez (left) and Buendia.
The problem for players – and especially those who play a long way from home – is that even in this day and age of technology and travel, they can feel that out of sight is out of mind, so there’s a pressure on them to attend.
I’d love, therefore, to see FIFA categorise international fixtures in four ways.
Two of which would see international football prioritised over club football and two of which would be vice-versa. These would be…
Category A – Major tournament qualifiers and finals.
Category B – Friendly games/camps immediately leading up to tournaments.
Category C – Long-haul friendlies that are just to get an overview of a squad/make money.
Category D – Games played in extraordinary circumstances where there has been an act of God, terrorism, a lockdown etc, whereby it’s simple for FIFA to say, ‘Pick players who are in your country or who you can get in and out on the green list’.
Club managers could plan accordingly, players couldn’t be pressured by club or country to make a decision, and international football would retain for the most part a priority status, which is exactly how it should be.
Otherwise, we’ll just be heading for more farce (Brazil v Argentina, left) and no one benefits from the sort of situation Martinez, Buendia, their clubs and countries have just found themselves in.