Let’s end these International breaks!

Another international weekend and hardly any football to watch! I know that international football is meant to be the pinnacle of our game but it really does bore me rigid!

Enjoy

I want to watch the Premier League and La Liga and Serie A and the Bundesliga and the rest. That is the type of football that we enjoy and gets us fans excited, not a European Championship qualifier between Andorra and Macedonia!!

It is the highlight of any player’s career to represent his country and like the next man, I get excited when the tournaments are going on. I just don’t understand why the rest of the football world has to stand still whilst pointless games between Hungary and San Marino take place. I don’t want to ruin the ending for anyone, but neither of these teams is going to qualify!!

Pain

I realise I may be alone in this view and that others may love to see the intricacies of the way the tactical battle between Armenia and Slovakia play out, but surely there are others who find international weekend an absolute pain in the area of the body where the sun don’t shine, aren’t there?

The lower leagues and the non-league game continue so there is at least some real football going on. I’ll be honest, I’d rather watch the League two battle between Bury and Accrington Stanley than tune in to see the ’international’ match between Kazakhstan and Belgium. It will be a better and more exciting game.

Beer

My Saturday should consist of an afternoon coaching and managing my own non-league team, followed by a beer in the clubhouse, watching the results come in on Sky Sports. I should then get home, partake in a decent bottle of wine and settle down for match of the day. The powers that be who introduced ‘international breaks’ have totally disrupted my life and I am not happy!

Normally, I allow my family to watch things like Strictly Come Dancing and the X-Factor, on the understanding that once Match of the Day and the Football League show start, the television remote control is all mine. What reward will I get this week for sitting through the interminable boredom of X-Factor?

Past

In the past, players used to go off to join their national teams after their game on a Saturday. They played the international game on the Wednesday evening and then returned to their club in time to play again the following weekend. What was wrong with that?

They decided that the players were getting too tired. Well boo-hoo. They now have to play more midweek club games later in the season or the season has to go on longer. How does that make them less tired? I know successive England managers have asked for more time with their players and they must be pleased that they now get a whole week with them at times like this. It has obviously made a huge difference. Just look at how well England did in the World Cup!!

I want to start a campaign to end ‘international breaks’. I have had enough of having my Saturday nights ruined!