The Return of the International Matches

Yet again, international matches are back. Luckily, this time it is only for the midweek games and does not involve the teams taking a break from league action for two weeks. True, this week has the potentially exciting Germany and Holland match but still... A lot of people lament international matches and I guess I am one of those. There are so few international matches compared to club ones so it is really hard to truly form an affiliation with national teams unless it is your home country. For people like me whose country does not play much high profile or important matches, it just gets boring in this period. Here are two propositions to solve this problem:

1) Set international matches to all be during the post season period
There is a major tournament once every two years. Why not set it such that the qualification matches are held during post season the year before the tournament? In this way, there will be no disruption to club matches and less disputes between club managers and international managers. Moreover, international managers will get the opportunity to work with the players for an extended period of time during the qualification period unlike the situation now, where the managers have just a few days to work with the players before crucial matches. One additional benefit is that throughout the year, we will have some action to watch. What's not to like? It might be said that this might be detrimental to players, who will be overworked and susceptible to injuries. However, international managers have such a large number of players at their disposal and extra substitutions so we can reasonably expect them to rotate based on the conditions of the players. Giving the players rest for a month before the season start should be enough, especially considering they do not need much preseason as they are already keeping up their fitness levels.

2) Set a relegation format
The relegation format has been working for leagues for years and the international committee might want to consider taking a look at it. International competitions always determine the top few positions and I am proposing that they also determine who are the last few of the final round. The teams at the bottom of the groups for the final round will play each other to see who are the last few teams of that particular tournament. At the same time the final round of the competition is playing out, teams not involved will have a tournament to see who are the best of the rest. Eventually, the last of the rest are 'relegated' and the best of the rest will be 'promoted'. This allows the matches to be more even most of the time yet still offers hope to the supposedly lower teams and allow them to qualify for international tournaments. Not a bad idea I suppose.