International football – at least on the European continent – is fast losing its appeal, and something drastic needs to happen if it is not to die out completely.
I’m not talking about the major tournaments like the European Championships and World Cups. Those will always be popular with the masses, not least because they appeal to people who are not traditional football fans. But all the other games that happen in between those tournaments, the pointless qualifiers and the useless friendlies, are driving people away from international football in their droves.
In an era when club football has become a slick, rich and highly marketed product, international football is facing an existential battle to remain interesting and relevant. Unfortunately, however, that is a battle it is currently losing, primarily because of a gross lack of competitiveness.
In an era when club football has become a slick, rich and highly marketed product, international football is facing an existential battle to remain interesting and relevant
England vs San Marino 10-0; France vs Kazakhstan 8-0; Germany vs Liechtenstein 9-0. Those are just a few of the more ridiculous results that occurred during the qualifying groups for next year’s World Cup. And apart from those there were dozens of other games where one team scored five, six or seven goals; games that were one-sided and painfully predictable even before kick-off.
This proliferation of uncompetitive matches, which has been getting gradually worse over the years, is turning proper fans off. Not only that, but it is making them resentful of the enforced breaks to domestic leagues. Last week, England legend Michael Owen said he was “rapidly falling out of love with international football” mostly because of pointless qualifying games. And he is entirely right.
I watched the match between England and San Marino more out of a sense of obligation than desire. Everybody involved knew in advance it wouldn’t be competitive, that the result was a foregone conclusion. It was always going to be a case of how many England would score. The same thing the week before against Albania.
That simply can’t be good for the future of football. It certainly can’t be any good for the smaller teams on the end of these hidings. And I don’t think it is good for TV companies – the lifeblood of the modern game – who must be seeing viewing figures dropping significantly.
I know FIFA’s Chief of Global Football Development – ex-Arsenal legend Arsene Wenger – is looking into this problem with a view to making international football more relevant, less invasive and more competitive. But he is getting resistance every step of the way. And why is that? Because fixing international football obviously isn’t in the interests of domestic clubs or the leagues they form part of.
The big European sides don’t want international football to be better and more entertaining. The Premier League, Bundesliga, Serie A and the rest don’t want people to care more about their national teams than their club sides. Because if that happened, the clubs and the leagues would see a substantial reduction in their ability to print money. Clubs don’t earn anything of note from a classic Spain vs Belgium match or a crucial Italy vs France tie.
In fact, clubs, and by default leagues, are more likely to suffer as a result of international games, with their big stars (who attract fans and earn them money) running the risk of getting injured. So the clubs and the leagues will kick and scream about any reform, any rationalising of the scheduling, any plans to hold the World Cup every two years instead of four, any attempt to make games more competitive and interesting.
None of that is in their interests. And because of their refusal to budge, international football – apart from the actual tournaments – is dying a slow, painful and lingering death. If that is allowed to happen it will break my heart and the hearts of millions of others who, like me, were brought up in an era when playing for your country was the ultimate honour and international matches the ultimate viewing experience.
There is still hope, of course. Wenger is nothing if not a determined man and he won’t give up without a fight. But you have to suspect it will ultimately turn out to be a losing battle…
Bright spark in midfield
Let’s finish with a bit of a happier story. During an FA Trophy clash between non-league teams Marine and Dunston last week, the game had to be halted just after half-time when the floodlights failed. This type of incident is not entirely unheard of in the lower leagues where clubs don’t have teams of technicians and engineers on the payroll hanging around the fuse boxes just in case.
But the nice part about this story is that Dunston midfielder Phil Turnbull also happens to be an electrician by trade. So he stopped playing and went to see if he could get things up and running again. After some fiddling, a call with the club’s electrician who happened to be home with COVID, and the intervention of another electrician who actually had some tools, they managed to get the floodlights back in action and the game was able to go ahead.
Just as well for Phil and his Dunston teammates who had had to make a six-hour round trip for the match and didn’t fancy doing it all over again. What didn’t go so well for Phil was the result, which saw his team knocked out. Even so, stories like these show that when you get away from the money-means-everything peak of the football pyramid, the game is still beautifully working class at its roots.
Twitter: @maltablade