FIFA International Match Calendar: Proposed Changes & General Discussion

How do you enforce that?

 

Surely there is data tracking technology to enforce it.

 

A GPS tether?

 

I think you are confusing "implementation" with "enforcement": spreadsheets of minutes played are not part of labor contracts, as labor hourly rates are prohibited by FIFPRO guidelines.
A club can successfully argue that paying a full-time salary does not compel the club to limit player labor outside of limits already stipulated in labor law.

Secondly, grabbing round-numbers out of thin air (48 club matches or 3400 club match minutes / season) is a weak foundation for protecting players against match fatigue.
No athlete played 48+ club matches over 12 months prior to 2022 WC. So that performance threshold would protect zero athletes.

A threshold for "match minutes played per season" is not enforceable either: injury-time minutes will force clubs into non-compliance towards the end of a season, even more if clubs participate in tournaments where knockout matches add unexpected minutes to players' time-sheets.

I am all for protecting athletes against match fatigue. Unfortunately, time-sheets are job opportunities for bean counters and lawyers, not for sport medicine staff.

 

There's always the option of signing more players and paying them less.

 

It's not necessary to do this anyway since it's in the club's interest for a player not to pick up wear and tear related injuries or be burned out going into the business end of the season. Especially since they're the ones financially invested in their players

If anything, the limit should be imposed on the NTs. They benefit very little from resting players, and get limited time to see their players, so logically they are more inclined to just put them out until until they collapse.

 

I think it should be up to individual players to limit their number of matches by having clauses written into their contracts. Every player's situation is different, and the reality is that the vast majority of players are NOT internationals and do not play too many matches.

And players ALWAYS have had the right to turn down/withdraw from national team call-ups. Nothing is preventing someone like Mbappe from telling the French federation that he's only going to play X number of matches per year for the French NT.

Just as an example, even though my club, Newcastle, qualified for Europe last season and played 51 games in total, only three players out of the 26 on the roster played more than 40 club matches, and only seven players played in more than 30 club matches.

 

FIFA really needs to reduce the number of international windows.

Instead of having ten match dates spread out over 4-5 windows, they really needs to cut things down to just two 5-match windows a year. Just way too disruptive having three 2-match windows in September/October/November, given that's also when the highest number of clubs are still participating in European competitions.

 

A lot of those that do aren't in the lineup for every game. We have had a busy year in 2024 with the Asian Cup and WCQ and out of the 11 matches we've played we've started 25 different players and used 10 more as subs at some stage. Only 15 of these 35 have appeared in 6 or more matches with 7 playing in 9 or more. Jackson Irvine proved the most durable with 11 starts. Harry Soutar had 10 starts and Connar Metcalfe was the only other player to reach double figures. Your point about club players not playing all the matches (Newcastle had a particularly bad year with injuries which I think skewed your example a touch) is valid for international windows as well.

 

The windows reduce to 4 after the next world cup with one 4 match window but you have a valid point. I think the windows were originally front loaded at the start of most club seasons so there wasn't as much disruption at the business end of the season. Maybe 2 x 4 match windows in October and Feb/March plus a 2 match window post season in June would be a better mix for the 10 international games.

 

I assume you mean starts, not appearances as Wikipedia has

Guimiaraes 48
Gordon 47
Schär 45
Longstaff 44
Almíron 43
Burn 41
Isaac 38
Trippier 37
Livramento 35

There was no planned squad rotation.

It was the result of fitness and/or injuries which were probably a result of 11 players making 40 or more appearances in 2022/23 and an excessive number of competitive pre- season friendlies.

"Newcastle's season - and European return - was hindered by 41 separate instances of injury through the course of the 2023-24 campaign. The Magpies had the third-highest injury rate of the season, behind Manchester United and Chelsea, with a total of 20 players ruled out at some point...At one stage, Eddie Howe had 11 players missing in a single game week"

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/crgg6r5nnqno

 

Two Five match windows a year would not be accepted by CONMEBOL.

Only when pigs fly will that happen.

 

I used the data from the NUFC.COM website.....

 

Which looks like it is run by a 14 year-old.

Whichever you use, the point is that Howe wasn't managing minutes intelligently, Newcastle had a ton of injuries which were probably the result of excessive minutes the previous season.

 

How many Man City players were involved in the latter stages of the World Cup? Maybe 4 or 5.

In this case the entire squad will be be playing competitive football into the second week in July.

 

Yeah. I could see it being a bit challenging and messy to make up those postponed matches, but I also see Pep's point. The WC and Euros impact title contending clubs in roughly similar ways, but this expanded CWC thing impacts 2 teams greatly and leaves the other 16-18 completely alone.

 

to reuce playing time, get rid of +10 stoppage time scenarios and considdr to abolish extratime in knock out games.

also in earlier decades there were lesser games and still heavy injuries of big players so i do not get the point.

besides there a teams that a more affected by muscular injuries than others like Milan last year.

perhaps it is als lack of training expertise of special coaches?

 

I would definitely abolish ET in 2-leg knockout ties; stairght to penalty-kicks if the aggregate score is level after normal time in the second leg (this would also remove the advantage the team playing the second leg at home has now that the away-goal rule has been abolished).

The excessive stoppage times we have seen in FIFA competitions should also be abolished.

 

You mean no bonus footy?

 

Agreed on latter. There are multiple issues with ET in 2-legged ties and minimal benefit. The main issue is that it gives one team a home advantage, which somewhat defeats the purpose of a two-legged tie.

Stoppage time is different though. That's just making up lost time during which players were resting, drinking water, talking with their manager, etc because of some delay in the match. If there is 10 minutes of stoppage time it doesn't mean players have to run around for 100 minutes. Not even 91.

 

If they did like virtually every sport does and visibly stop a clock rather than just add a discretionary amount no one would notice how much extra time we have.

 

Nooooooo!

Admittedly the current double figures of added time is a bit ridiculous.

 

While I don't oppose trials in so-called effective time, say 2 x 30-minute halves with the clock stopped when the ball is out of play like in futsal, I'm generally against soccer learning lessons from other football codes not to mention other sports which are more stop-start than soccer. In fact, one of soccer's many advantages over other sports is that it has a natural non-stop flow from the kick-off to the final whistle.