[Football] What changes would you make to the international football schedule?

[Mustafa II]

IMO too frequent schedules. Key players pulling out all the time through 'injury', when in reality it's because their priority is club football.

First thing I would do is make a mini-league for minor nations to get rid of some pointless fixtures and have group sizes of 4, rather than 5/6. That would get rid of at least one international break.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Bin one of the first there

They are not all needed and they are in a packed time of the year fixture wise.

Have pre qualifiers like every other confederation other than South America, absolutely pointless playing some of these nations, some of the tackles they put in are so poor.

 

[East Staffs Gull]

Play internationals midweek only. No weekend breaks. Make all European club competitions knockout throughout.

 

[tronnogull]

Make UEFA cut back on European football competitions rather than the current expansion which is completely to the detriment of domestic football.

 

[BN41Albion]

Make UEFA cut back on European football competitions rather than the current expansion which is completely to the detriment of domestic football.

Agree, the expansions almost make qualifiers even more pointless, too: pretty much guaranteed to qualify unless you're really really shithouse. But we live in world of MORE MORE MORE unfortunately - not just football. Greed is everywhere - all about the money money money sadly

 

[Krafty]

Get rid of the Nations League.

 

[Mustafa II]

Another option could be an FA Cup style knock out round including ALL nations, in order of rankings, starting with early preliminary rounds where players are unlikely to missed as much and/or play for smaller clubs during the season.

Also why are there only 24 teams in the Euros, but 32 in the World Cup? That could be another way to cut back on fixtures.

There seem to be so many ways that we could cut back on in-season international fixtures... but like others have suggested, it's not in their interest financially.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I’d scrap that crap nations league thing for starters.

 

[Mustafa II]

List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Looking at the most capped players of all time, with 100 or more international caps, almost ALL of them are from the past 20 years.

Further evidence that they have been adding more and more international fixtures in the last couple of decades.

 

[WhingForPresident]

For UEFA, I'd scrap qualifiers as they are and Nations League. Have a WC every four years and a continental competition every four years with two years in between, as is currently done. Do qualifiers for these competitions over two weeks in the summers that don't have a WC or continental competition. Groups of four, top two go through.

I'd take any solution that significantly cuts the amount of international football tbh.

 

[um bongo molongo]

With players playing in leagues all over the world, the travelling is insane. I would play qualifiers in the summer in the ‘off years’. Maybe one slightly longer international break a season the winter, and that’s it. For groups of 5, you only have to find space for 8 fixtures every 18 months (and no Nations league nonsense).

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

For UEFA, I'd scrap qualifiers as they are and Nations League. Have a WC every four years and a continental competition every four years with two years in between, as is currently done. Do qualifiers for these competitions over two weeks in the summers that don't have a WC or continental competition. Groups of four, top two go through.

I'd take any solution that significantly cuts the amount of international football tbh.

I'd rather reduce the number of international games (pre-qualifiers introduced for UEFA, ditch Nations League) but keep them played during the season and give the players a proper break every other summer. No international friendlies allowed in the summers where the Euros or World Cup aren't taking place. For other federations that play their main tournaments in the middle of the season (AFCON/Asia Cup) then they cannot play friendlies either in the summer break. For the last world cup over 70% of players came from UEFA affiliated clubs so fitting in around the European season makes most sense.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Make UEFA cut back on European football competitions rather than the current expansion which is completely to the detriment of domestic football.

Except European football is good and enjoyable....

 

[GJN1]

Keep it as it is but bring back the Home Internationals too.

 

[Blue3]

Just do away with friendly games only play competitive games against teams in your geographical region and the top number of teams progress to a World Cup names out a hat just straight forward knock out no mini leagues

 

[East Staffs Gull]

Get rid of the Nations League.

Which was introduced to replace meaningless friendlies. And now we have both.

 

[tronnogull]

Except European football is good and enjoyable....

I've certainly enjoyed my trips to Marseilles and Ajax ! However, that does not change the contention that domestic football suffers because of the expansion of European football......look what has happened to the League Cup and FA Cup, and the awful impacts of fixture congestion on league games......

Plus, actually, a lot ( most ? ) of European football is not good when compared to the quality of the Prem......

 

[Clive Walker]

Bin it all off

 

[Littlemo]

None. Plenty of people enjoy internationals, and players love playing for their countries. It accounts for only 10 matches in a year (when there is no tournaments). Just because English fans don’t seem to enjoy them doesn’t mean they should bin them all.

 

[marcos3263]

I’d f*** it right off. Boring weekend