Why do we need an international break when players suffer all the time?

Why do we need an international break when players suffer all the time?

Managers across the world cannot understand the logic that is behind this, with some of them being more affected than the others. Ask Jurgen Klopp or Andrea Pirlo of this and they will most likely chew your heads off with their answers. Here we analyse the need for not having an international break in the middle of the most hectic season.

Fixture congestion

The Premier League began on 12th August, after having ended on 26th July. There wasn’t much of a pre-season as each of the teams were able to play only some games. After the Premier League started, the Carabao Cup started and the Champions League followed soon. Some teams played three matches a week and this obviously leads to burnout. Liverpool’s new signing Thiago Alcantara contracted corona after his debut against Chelsea and the floodgates opened. Jordan Henderson was injured in the same match, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita contracted Corona and Xherdan Shaqiri had a false positive case.

Then the injuries started mounting as Virgil Van Dijk, Alisson, Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Fabinho, Trent Alexander Arnold and Joe Gomez were injured. While Van Dijk and Thiago were injured because of freak tackles, the rest succumbed to fatigue. Trent Alexander Arnold is the notable case here, while Joe Gomez injured himself in England international training. Both of them face a long time out in the sidelines. Now Mohamed Salah has tested for Corona after travelling for the international break.

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Virus spread

Cristiano Ronaldo succumbed to the virus when playing against France. Eston Camavinga got his shirt and took it home. The virus could have easily spread to him and to the whole team and by chance it didn’t happen. Kylian Mbappe also contracted the virus and now suffers from a long term injury. Sadio Mane, Thiago Alcantara, Mohamed Salah, Naby Keita, Callum Hudson Odoi all got the virus and have been sidelined for a long time. Traveling in a pandemic era is really not the best idea you can come up with, especially when players easily break lockdown protocols. This is why international travel was banned and still shouldn’t be allowed.

One must ask now, what is the use of travelling when the whole world is ravaged by a common virus. The NBA finished their remaining matches and for the most part had zero positive cases. How come a league in the country that had the most number of positive cases manage to almost restrict cases to the least. There they didn’t allow players to meet their families and all team members stayed together. With that the cases were restricted to the minimum.

Viable Solution

This is what should have been followed in football too. FIFA and UEFA should have sat down and put their heads together. They should have formulated a plan where both the Premier League and Champions League ended early. If those two leagues ended early, the FIFA qualifiers and Euro qualifiers could’ve been played at one place in the same time. Fans aren’t allowed into stadiums and therefore it wouldn’t have been a problem if they all played in a neutral venue. The Champions League was conducted in Lisbon and that was a very good idea. This is what should have been done from the first.

Playing two matches a week is not a bad thing per se. Having Champions League matches in weekdays with domestic matches in the weekend, the schedule could’ve been freed up for the players. There could be a two week break between stages in the Champions League and in that period the domestic matches could’ve been played twice a week. There could be a one week gap once in two months as a form of rest for players. Having a game plan like this would’ve meant that the latter end of the Premier League could’ve been freed for the FIFA events.

The FIFA and UEFA organisations need to take a look at where they want to go with all these events, when players are dropping like flies.

Also read: AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli tests positive for Covid-19