International Football is Broken But it Can Be Fixed
As the final international break of 2020 comes to a close, as everyone rejoices at a now uninterrupted four month spree of the club game, it is worth remembering that there was once a time that football at the national level was the forefront of the game.
This was a time when the likes of Rinus Michels and Arrigo Sacchi, two of the greatest minds the sport has ever seen, went into international management in their primes. Michels took the great Total Football Dutch side of Johan Cryuff to the 1974 World Cup final. Sacchi similarly took the Italy side, with the great Roberto Baggio, to the 1994 World Cup final.
They set the example that managing their native national sides at the World Cup was the highest level of the game. Sacchi left behind his historic AC Milan side for the Azzurri and Michels split his time between Barcelona and the Netherlands.
Pele and Diego Maradona are most widely regarded as the two best players of the 20th Century. They both earned those reputations for their performances for Brazil and Argentina respectively. Their accomplishments at the World Cup defined them.
But in the 21st Century, the club game has widely overtaken the international game. Standards are set in domestic leagues and European club competition. The two best players of the last 20 years, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, have left their mark on the sport for what they’ve achieved in La Liga and the Champions League.
Their performances at the World Cup won’t be what they are predominantly remembered for. While they had big moments for their national sides, it will be their rivalry for Barcelona and Real Madrid that defines them.
However, what was most significant about the likes of Michels and Sacchi moving to international management while in their prime was that they gave their national sides an identity. There was a distinct Dutch and Italian way to play football.
This was true of so many national sides in the 20th Century. These styles were also what influenced the club game, the best teams to watch were all national sides.
As football moved into the modern age, this influence began to switch. This reversal became solidified by the 2010 and 2014 World Cup winners. Spain and Germany did still embody a Spanish and German way of playing football but they were also so clearly influenced by the tiki-taka football of Barcelona and the pressing game of Borussia Dortmund. Domestic club football was the real winner of those two tournaments.
The globalisation and commercialisation of the game has been another death knell for the international level. Steve Menary, when speaking on the Football Today podcast Why Brazilians Fans Are Falling Out of Love With Their National Team (see 27.40), described what the international game now struggles with.
“We’re all so connected now that you can find out very quickly about another team and whether it’s worth watching that game and perhaps it might not be these days,” said Menary, a freelance journalist and contributor to World Soccer and When Sunday Comes.
Friendlies have now become a pointless arena for mild experimentation with no meaning or tension. Menary described how there was once a time when friendlies were the only chance to see certain players or certain teams before a World Cup so watching them was unveiling a sense of mystery.
Whereas now friendlies don’t even carry the same weight in terms of ranking points, which still do impact a team’s ability to qualify for the major tournaments.
“From a coach’s point of view you want to play games, you want to try different players. The ranking points for friendlies have been reduced now since 2018, so from a coach’s point of view if you play a friendly match it’s not going to have such a detrimental impact on your ranking. Whereas before 2018 you got some of the European countries who looked like they were avoiding friendlies.
“Switzerland were in the top five in the world and they played one friendly in the last year cause if they played a friendly they could actually damage their ranking so now that doesn’t happen, the points on offer are much less so therefore you can experiment more in a friendly and you can look to perhaps play more friendlies. There’s less hinging on them even more so now.”
Now, all the top players in the world are centralised within the biggest five leagues in Europe. If someone doesn’t play in La Liga, Serie A, the Premier League, the Bundesliga or Ligue 1 then do they even exist?
This is the impact of globalisation on the game. It heightens the club game, focusing all the best players into one location means we do now see the top athletes competing with and against each other on a regular basis. This is why the Champions League has now overtaken the World Cup as the biggest showcase of the greatest teams, matches and individual performances.
This has not only impacted the national level, but it has also affected the domestic game of those outside that top five. The best players are being plucked away from Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Brazil and moving to the likes of Juventus, Barcelona or even Southampton. In essence, this means that like most things across the sport, money has sacrificed the international game.
However, FIFA and its organisers have not helped the international game at all with the setup of the current football calendar.
The top managers today, the likes of Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, have cited the lack of time with the players as a reason to not get into international management while in their prime years. Antonio Conte expressed his frustration at this as well for why he left the Italian management role in 2016.
“In a club you can work every day with your players, whilst with the national team, if you are lucky you can have them for nine to 10 days a month,” said Conte.
“It’s a challenge with myself to transmit my ideas in such a short time.”
By spacing out the ten international games that take place in a given year by splitting into five separate two week periods over 12 months it limits a manager’s capacity to actually coach his side. It is why we see such a drop in standard between the club game and the international game.
This defies all logic and reason. It upsets both club and national managers and it detracts from the player’s rhythm and consistency to have to switch from the day to day life of club football to the mundanity of the Nations League or some friendlies. Even for a lot of the world’s best players, the qualifying stages at national level can be a totally tedious distraction.
This setup also opens international football to a huge amount of resentment from fans. For some, following their club team is their priority over the national side. For others, it can be difficult to get behind a side that you only get to watch a couple of games at a time and where players can wildly differentiate from match to match.
International breaks need to be assigned more broad slots on the football calendar. By removing the four mid-season breaks it would mean that the club season can end four weeks earlier and leave a whole month free either at the start or the end of a campaign to focus solely on international football.
The current state of international football is being undermined by those with the power to change it. With the current pandemic changing the football calendar, forcing it to condense everything into a shorter space of time, it is simply ridiculous that even now there has been no hint of change to the setup.
And until someone finally does wake up and see the inherent flaws and fixable problems that those not in power can clearly see then the top managers in the game will continue to wait until retirement to manage their national sides. The trailblazers like Michels and Sacchi will be consigned to the past.
