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World Cup 2026 - Qualifiers
- Thread starter Kandi1977
- Start date
Muttley
Ruel Fox
I still think online fans of clubs just don't get the bigger picture of international football. Here's a few things to consider.
- The players WANT international football. They deeply care about it and love meeting up with their fellow countrymen to play in there other team. For them, that change is as good as a rest. They enter this career to play for their countries.
- For real supporters who travel to international games, it is the same thing. Being united as one fanbase is what it is all about. The last thing they need is to be told they won't get their holiday breaks split out over an entire year as internationals are banned from the "season". They have to take all their annual leave between May and August. It's the same as not concluding qualification with enough time to have the draw and play your summer tournaments. Normally the WC draw is in December to real fans can get their summer logistics sorted.
- The argument that the PL cubs pay the player's wages and should get priority is also pointless. Such a big chunk of money comes from the consumer paying for their different TV subscriptions. It's one big supply chain and so many of us believe that international football should get their share. It's actually not much either in the grand scheme of things.
- Number of friendlies could be reduced if the qualifying groups have even numbers. It stands to reason if you have 5 teams in a group then only 4 can play on any single evening. The end of season friendlies on even years are required for warm up for comps. I'm not sure the rest add too much value though especially now the 17 year Wembley debt finished last year. There was a strong case before to keep the money rolling in.
For me, the answers lie elsewhere. I'm all for the rugby and cricket model where the international game is the pinnacle. There's also no argument anymore that the PL is more "entertaining" than England. The PL is as dull as ditchwater nowadays.
- The players WANT international football. They deeply care about it and love meeting up with their fellow countrymen to play in there other team. For them, that change is as good as a rest. They enter this career to play for their countries.
- For real supporters who travel to international games, it is the same thing. Being united as one fanbase is what it is all about. The last thing they need is to be told they won't get their holiday breaks split out over an entire year as internationals are banned from the "season". They have to take all their annual leave between May and August. It's the same as not concluding qualification with enough time to have the draw and play your summer tournaments. Normally the WC draw is in December to real fans can get their summer logistics sorted.
- The argument that the PL cubs pay the player's wages and should get priority is also pointless. Such a big chunk of money comes from the consumer paying for their different TV subscriptions. It's one big supply chain and so many of us believe that international football should get their share. It's actually not much either in the grand scheme of things.
- Number of friendlies could be reduced if the qualifying groups have even numbers. It stands to reason if you have 5 teams in a group then only 4 can play on any single evening. The end of season friendlies on even years are required for warm up for comps. I'm not sure the rest add too much value though especially now the 17 year Wembley debt finished last year. There was a strong case before to keep the money rolling in.
For me, the answers lie elsewhere. I'm all for the rugby and cricket model where the international game is the pinnacle. There's also no argument anymore that the PL is more "entertaining" than England. The PL is as dull as ditchwater nowadays.
Bedfordspurs
Gary Lineker
International football is a mess IMO
Too many games against weak opposition and being run by a corrupt organisation
You like it, I get it
Most fans of poorer sides love it because it’s their chance to enjoy a moment in the lights and travel. Fair dues
But it will never be the pinnacle because the money isn’t there and your restricted by birth right
Muttley
Ruel Fox
I actually don't like the organisations. I cannot stand FIFA and UEFA, but have no love of the PL either. The day the PL stole all the decision rights from the FA was a bad day for football. We needed to fix the wrongs of the FA who were not doing a good job. We needed to unite the pyramid, not bifurcate it.
As you imply, I'm quite old school. I'd happily have a 16 team PL in a single football pyramid, get the 2 domestic cups re-energised and make international football strong again. It also occurs to me that Spurs playing Donny Rovers is perfectly acceptable, but when England do the equivalent thing they're out of order.
As for birth right, it is a fair point. There were always the lovable legends from the so called minnows though. No bigger than George Best who never played in a WC.
Bedfordspurs
Gary Lineker
But he would have been playing CL, premier league and be even more well known in the modern game
The reason why the premier league became so popular is it had jeopardy. It’s was unpredictable and anyone can beat anyone
Then add in the production level which got better year in year
That isn’t necessarily the case now but it’s so dominant off the back of the viewing because if that, power level teams can big players form the better or bigger sides in Europe.
At international level you don’t get minnows taking big scalps that matter because the quantity of quality isn’t there.
Muttley
Ruel Fox
I do think other countries went more 2 pronged though. Spain internationally won a world cup and a couple of Euros in the PL years. They rode alongside RM and Barca who picked up 11 or 12 CL trophies amongst them. Germany held the Bundesliga as one pyramid structure and formed a tight partnership with their FA to make sure both international and domestic football flourished. It did for a while but then dipped. Obviously in England we broke away from our FA, formed the PL and got into bed with Sky. We did rebrand entire thing and it has got us CL trophies across different sides. However, unlike the other countries we didn't maintain the international focus. We left that behind with the FA. We ended up with Southgate. They ended up with Del Bosque and Low. Their countries still love international football across the board.
I'd still love us to redress the balance somehow. It will be difficult when UEFA and FIFA are stealing the money away from the countries though. I can definitely see what the super league concept came about when every big club knows that a chunk of their revenues are being taken from UEFA. Why would you sit back and accept that when you are the product?
In my opinion, the PL definitely need to address why the football is so dull nowadays. It has become more about the production around the 90 mins than the 90 mins itself. Ironically, that could even bring fans back to the international game. Probably not, but maybe.
Bedfordspurs
Gary Lineker
Spain
Like Belgium
Changed their whole set up because they wanted to be better
It wasn’t about international football alone
But they changed everything from the ground up
The reason the prem can be dull js it’s becoming predictable due to the money
Too much of a good thing I guess