International break - why?

[Fear Of The Fox]

54 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

nations league has created more fixtures than before it was around, waste of time.

 

should just have qualifiers for euros and World Cup and then if a team wants to organise a friendly they do it at there own cost 

It might be a waste of time for the big 5-6 nations but certainly isn't for teams like Greece. If Greece finish 1st in the group they have an extra chance/window to qualify for the WC2026. 

Nations League is way better than having pointless friendlies. Do you remember what was happening before with international friendlies? All big nations were arranging friendlies against each other, fans from Greece or elsewhere rarely had the chance to see even in friendlies star players like Bellingham, Ronaldo etc. 

Today Greece has a sold out vs Ireland. My point is we're as fans of Leicester bashing the elite European teams, the "Big 6" and their antics in PL, but when it comes to the national team we have the same arrogance we condemn. I've seen so many saying the game vs Greece was a glorified friendly. No it wasn't. It was a serious international game in which the national team was ridiculed worldwide. 

Edited 13 October 2024 by Fear Of The Fox

[whoareyaaa]

3 minutes ago, Fear Of The Fox said:

It might be a waste of time for the big 5-6 nations but certainly isn't for teams like Greece. If Greece finish 1st in the group they have an extra chance/window to qualify for the WC2026. 

Nations League is way better than having pointless friendlies. Do you remember what was happening before with international friendlies? All big nations were arranging friendlies against each other, fans from Greece or elsewhere rarely had the chance to see even in friendlies star players like Bellingham, Ronaldo etc. 

Today Greece has a sold out vs Ireland. My point is we're as fans of Leicester bashing the elite European teams, the "Big 6" and their antics in PL, but when it comes to the national team we have the same arrogance we condemn. I've seen so many saying the game vs Greece was a glorified friendly. No it wasn't. It was a serious international game in which the national team was ridiculed worldwide. 

It may be good for smaller nations but I wouldn't say it was competitive for the bigger nations as you suggest and I'm sure it adds more fixtures to the international schedule. 

 

The World Cup and Euros is enough to give smaller nations the chance to play and beat the bigger nations, no need for a 3rd tournament.

[Fear Of The Fox]

3 minutes ago, whoareyaaa said:

It may be good for smaller nations but I wouldn't say it was competitive for the bigger nations as you suggest and I'm sure it adds more fixtures to the international schedule. 

 

The World Cup and Euros is enough to give smaller nations the chance to play and beat the bigger nations, no need for a 3rd tournament.

So you prefer England playing an international friendly vs France or Spain and the manager calling up for duty 3 of our players which he won't even consider for the big tournaments. And then have 2 of them injured. I can't quite understand your logic. 

[whoareyaaa]

2 minutes ago, Fear Of The Fox said:

So you prefer England playing an international friendly vs France or Spain and the manager calling up for duty 3 of our players which he won't even consider for the big tournaments. And then have 2 of them injured. I can't quite understand your logic. 

I'd prefer to just play the qualifiers and a few internationals as and when not these long breaks distributing the league schedules and adding more international fixtures which are lets be honest pretty boring and pointless, that way you won't have players being called up that won't play in big tournaments.

[MrsJohnMurphy]

17 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

And friendlies were less frequent. Up until the 80s there was the home championships, which I always enjoyed immensely and I think kept the Welsh, Scots and N. Ireland teams a lot more competitive.

 

Two things happened at the end of the 80s. Cheaper international travel and the end of the cold war created several new countries in Europe and therefore more teams to play against.

Which leads to the likes of Rooney and Kane being our top goal scorers because of the amount of absolute dog poo we play these days

[Footballwipe]

This October one has existed for at least 20 years cos it falls around my birthday so I never have a LCFC game.

 

Tbh I find the September one more of an arse than anything. I think this and the November one are more palatable if you've had a half decent run up to them, rather than three games and then September internationals.

[CosbehFox]

Introduced around 2000 - memory is the first one involved the last game at Wembley

 

The qualifying groups expanded. Before it was one fixture only on each international break and therefore was midweek. 
 

Bear in mind the origin is less sinister and not a cash in by UEFA. It expanded because multiple counties gained independence from Russia and Yugoslavia 

[CosbehFox]

14 minutes ago, Footballwipe said:

This October one has existed for at least 20 years cos it falls around my birthday so I never have a LCFC game.

 

Tbh I find the September one more of an arse than anything. I think this and the November one are more palatable if you've had a half decent run up to them, rather than three games and then September internationals.

Just looked up the first double international fixtures occurred in 1999. 
 

Pre that England would play midweek fixtures in September, October, November, February, March, April and finish with a couple of games in late May 

[foxinsocks]

The only up side of the break is that we can see what a donkey kane is and how weird pickford is.

[FosseSpark]

Nations League has made things more competitive for England. We didn't win a single fixture in the Top division late 2022  (Italy 1 defeat, Hungary 2 defeats, Germany 2 draws) before the World Cup, and we've lost to the only good team in the 2nd tier of the Nations League 2024. So arguably the fixtures make for a much sterner test than seeded, dead rubbers that we get in most World or Euro qualification groups. The motivation for Greece in a group of only 4 teams to get one over on us is massive, whereas in a group of 6 or 7 they know that they will likely end up second at best to England. In this format if they beat us once then they stand a really good chance of promotion, and better tournament qualification chances.

The alternative is friendlies (impossible to sell for Wembley unless top top nations) in Sept and Nov or just scrapping that whole stretch and having training camps / internal matches to ensure readiness for qualification games - which will never fly as the national game needs money spinners to pay the bills. 

[Daggers]

International football is shit - non-league football is ace.

 

You're all looking for love in all the wrong places.

[Fox92]

It was FA Cup this weekend, there were enough games to go to. A few surprised but a lot of high scoring games.

[Foxin_Mad]

Apparently Wilf has been held hostage in Libya with the Nigeria team, obvs the Russian backed regime will state its western pig dog propaganda or something 

[Soar Fox]

Let nations pick 33 man squads and play 3 games instead of 2. Do away with the September fixtures and just have 3 games in October & November. 
 

An extra game each but with a bigger squad they then could change their entire first 11 if they wish to do so. 

[Matt]

There have been 7 Premier League games so far this season, there has been 4 England/International games in the time.

 

By the next international break we'll have had 11 Premier League games and England/Internationals will have played 6 games.

 

Ridiculous.