Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » Arsenal in a world cup for club teams?
by Walter Broeckx
I’m not a big fan of international football. Well, maybe that’s an understatement as I think it cost us the title this season with the injury from Robin Van Persie. When I was watching the world cup today I was wondering: if the world cup would be played with club teams would it make a big difference? And I think it could bring some benefit for football.
The only thing that we would miss is maybe the fact that there would be no national anthems before the games but for those who like national anthems this could be fixed as the teams that would play would represent the league of their country and thus if Arsenal would play they could perform the English anthem as Arsenal would represent England and the EPL. So no problem for this.
But how would we select the teams? I would suggest that each continent would send out the teams which would have the best score in their respective champions league over the last 4 years. And this would make the champions league games even more important and would also mean that all the teams in the champions league would have to try harder to win their games and not speculate on a draw and park the bus in front of goal. Because a draw that looks a good thing at first could mean that at the end of the 4 year they would miss the world cup. So I think this could encourage all teams to go all out in an attacking mind and bring more spectacular football. So a first advantage would be that teams should come out to win their games.
Because the players will not have to play for their national teams any more this would mean that they can play fewer games in a season. I think for most of the big team players it would mean some 5 up to 10 goals less. And as we have seen so many times it also would mean less injuries for those players. So a second advantage would be that players would get less injuries and could stay fitter.
The season would become less long. The dates that are now kept free for international football could be filled with the normal league games and this would mean that players get more rest in the season (see advantage 2) and they also would get more rest after the season.
At present we have at least 3 breaks in a season for international games in which most of the players play 2 games for their country in a week. If we wouldn’t have those breaks, I think we could end the season around the first weekend in may, or even the last weekend of april and then play the cup final and the champions league final and so from about half way through May the players would have a good rest before they restart the season around half July. This would be completely different for the players and would give them more rest. Advantage number 3 is a good summer holiday for all the players.
Now when the season stops the national teams come out and they start preparing a world cup/European championship/confederations cup. And this preparation takes about a month, then the world cup takes another month and when this is finished players have to start the preparation of the new season. But if the club teams played you wouldn’t need any extra preparation time because the players know each other and don’t have to get used to each other like they now do with the national team. So we could start the world cup immediately after the season around half may and this would mean that the world cup could end half June and the players would have at least a month free even in a world cup year. So my advantage number 4 would be that even in world cup year the players would get time to recover and again this would have as a result that there would be less injuries.
It would also mean that when a player gets an injury the manager of the team would be in charge and look after the health of the player. Now it can happen that a player who is only half fit is put on the field by the coach of his national team. He could get more seriously injured and this could mean trouble for the club that has to pay his wages. But when he gets an injury when playing for his own club team it is part of the job and the manager doesn’t have to sit in front of his TV and fear the worst for his players and his team. He will stay in control and will not get his player back injured by having played for another coach and team.
It also could mean that the national leagues benefit from this. The teams that would participate and represent the league they play in, earn money for their FA. Just as the national federations get money from their national team. So money-wise they would not lose money but it should be made clear that the money they receive should be invested in youth development.
The money should not be invested in big projects or a new headquarter where the big guys from the national federations would sit in wealth but new training grounds should be installed where the youth can practice and play games. This should be controlled by Fifa and if they break those rules the teams of that country should be banned. So the money that could be won should not go to the club directly but it should become an advantage for the whole football world in that country. In fact it should be that the clubs and the players play for the honour and not for the money. I know a very old fashioned word so I just repeat it : honor. Are there be any players out there who know this word?
And another advantage would be that it brings the world more together than it does now. Now if a country wins the world cup there is a party in one country. And the rest of the world would look in anger/disbelief/envy/or whatever emotion you can think of.
But any club team that would win the world cup would bring a worldwide outburst of joy. Let us take Arsenal it would mean that there would be joy in England, Spain, Holland, France, Denmark, Belgium, Russia, Cameroon, Mexico, Brazil, Poland, Morocco and who knows which other country and then we forget that there are many fans in other countries who have no player in the team for the moment but who will celebrate just the same. I can take almost any other club team in the world and it would mean there would be joy in many countries.
And by doing this, football could bring more joy all over the world with a world cup instead of just joy in one country. Football could bring the world together instead of dividing it.