Beginning of the End for International Friendlies?

By: Daryl | March 27th, 2008

Wenger predicts the end

Arsene Wenger was busy predicting the end of international friendlies today. After watching his native France beat England 1-0 at the Stade de France you’d think he’d feel at least a little positive. But apparently not:

“I am scared that in the modern game, there is no room any more for friendly internationals - not because countries take our players, just because people will not be interested in that any more,” he said. “There is nothing at stake. People want to see competitive games. Maybe I am completely wrong but in the end you get people to travel and it is good as an experiment for a manager to work on things. But, is it in the long term feasible for people to travel and spend their money to watch this kind of game? I am not sure.”

Now obviously Wenger is at least a little biased. As a club manager with all kinds of international players, these midweek games aren’t exactly his best friend. And you could definitely take issue with his comment about the feasibility if asking fans to pay and watch.

There were 78,500 at the France vs England game last night, while 60,021 also flocked to Arsenal’s own Emirates Stadium to see Brazil beat Sweden 1-0 (and this goal from Pato.)

We also saw some excellent football yesterday. Take a look at the Netherland’s dramatic 4-3 win over Austria if you don’t believe me.

More importantly, something other than qualifiers and tournaments has to exist. Teams can’t just launch into all-important games with no preparation, no chance to play together, no chance to see how fresh players perform on the international stage. Can they?

Wenger has suggested replacing friendlies with training camps, but that wouldn’t replicate a match situation. How can you blood a youngster for international football in a training camp?

The problem seems to be that the sense of occasion that used to make internationals so exciting has gone. Before there was the Champions League, before domestic and foreign football was easily accessible via television and the internet, international games were rare and exotic. The phrase “only a friendly” was very rarely used, and players didn’t pull out en masse with suspicious injuries.

But now that phrase is used every time friendlies roll around, and it feels like every other player worth watching pulls a hamstring as a non-competitive international matchday approaches. So international football needs to act sooner rather than later.

The problem now is that international friendlies stand alone and mean nothing. There are no consequences for a defeat, nothing gained with a win. So I’d be in favour of shaking things up so that something is at stake in every game. Maybe a series of mini-tournaments could be organized, maybe a series of mini-international leagues that last one season. Maybe the qualification process could be expanded so that all games are competitive.

I’m sure there all kinds of reasons why those ideas won’t work, and I’m sure Sepp Blatter would love to laugh in my face and tell me why. But if something doesn’t change in the next few years then Arsene Wenger could be proved right and international football will be nothing but qualification, tournaments and training camps.

Originally published on World Cup Blog