International breaks: Good bonding opportunities or pointless mid-season disruptions?

International breaks: A double-edged sword?

A lot has been said in recent years about these International breaks that keep popping up pretty often during the course of the league football season, with quite a large group of people making their displeasure towards these periods of time very evident. One of the main reasons for these fans’ wrath is the fact that these breaks come right when a club starts getting results under their belt, is in a kind of flow, and all of a sudden everything is disrupted, and when the players return to their clubs they are left to pick up the pieces, in what is a confused and amnesic state of mind.

Indeed, it is plausible for teams to lose crucial encounters influencing the title race and qualification for European competition, especially considering the fact that the top clubs in each country have a lot of full internationals in their squads. And of course, there are the injuries sustained by players while playing for their countries, or to make it even more frustrating, in training! Its very hard for a manager to accept that his hat-trick hero of the previous game won’t kick a football for four weeks because of a nasty fall sustained in Peru.

Even if players manage to avoid the injuries, there is no escaping the overpowering fatigue that overcomes those that travel across continents to play for their countries.

All this has prompted questions as to whether there should even be internationals during mid-season. Of course, not all these matches are pointless friendly games; in fact most of them are crucial qualifiers for European Championships or World Cups. So not having these games is not even an option. Some advise having all these games after most league seasons end in the summer, but that will give rise to problems of fixture congestion in the summer. Also, the break from football that players have during this time [and the only holiday they get in the entire year] will be lost, reducing players’ energy and fitness for the forthcoming season.

The aim of these internationals scheduled over the year is to assess the way a nation plays over a span of time, a true determinant of whether the team deserves a place in the World Cup; and deciding this on the basis of ten matches played over one month would be very unfair.

International breaks are not a total waste of time though. They are invaluable opportunities for players from different clubs to come together and play for their countries, and get to know each other as a team. For once club rivalries are forgotten, and the standard of the games is much higher considering the fact that the best players come together to play for their nations. Its also an amazing experience for youngsters who get picked not only for their senior teams, but also for the U21s and levels below that, giving them unprecedented exposure to diverse styles of football.

In the end, it’s all about achieving a balance. FIFA has got to schedule the international breaks at regular intervals, something which they are pretty good at, but the dates need to change every year depending on circumstances. National leagues should take into account the players playing in far-off places in the midweek and give an extra day’s rest to most, and preferably all teams. And in the end, the managers need to understand which players need the most rest and give them that at the correct time.

It sounds very easy but for a coach with important games coming up it can give him sleepless nights. Managing in such situations is an art that will surely come to be perfected over the coming years.