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by Walter Broeckx
Once upon a time there was an organisation of brainless people. And as it went in those days those people organised themselves. After all, why not.
As any organisation they had to give themselves a name but deciding which name is very difficult. Especially when you have no brains to use. But in a very, very hard attempt to come up with something they thought that Fifa wouldn’t be that bad to call themselves. But a group of them who lived in Europe decided to call themselves Uefa. But they are the same brainless people in fact so we can use both names as we wish.
And there was much joy in the houses of the brainless people as finally they had found something in which they could make them useful. And this was going to be to organise international football.
And so they did. They organised world cups in countries all over the world, much to their own benefit. They may have been brainless but not stupid at all when it came to money.
But to play world cups you also have to play qualifying games and so they went on searching for dates in which they could take away the players from their clubs and let them play for their respective countries. Not the countries they were born in as citizens, no any country would do nice if you just could change some rules you could play for any country in the world. Even without ever having set foot in it. So the clubs just had to face the fact that the players they had paid so much money for and whom they were paying even more money week in week out went away for a week.
They went away in a healthy condition but no one knew how they would come back. Still walking, limping, on crutches, in a hospital bed…. ? You never knew and every now and then to the delight of the club managers even some players came back as healthy as they left. Which caused much joy and celebration at those teams followed by a city parade with an open bus and some teams even made a celebratory DVD.
And so we came to the month of November of a certain year. And in that month of November there was plenty of football. Oh yes, there was. All the big teams had to play almost a game every 3 days. Be it in the champions league, their own national league, the cup competitions…it was a very busy time for the teams and the players.
In fact when you look at the schedule all the top teams had, they only had one midweek free all month. And as a result of the world cup that was organised by Fufa in that summer a lot of players got injured because of the fact that they hardly had any rest during the summer. So the best thing for most players would be to have one midweek free without a game to play.
But then came our brainless people from Fifa on the stage and declared: there should be played friendly internationals on the 17th November. And so it happened. Another brainless decision from the brainless Fifa society. Playing meaningless friendly international games in a cold period in the year when there is already a big risk of muscle injuries and certainly with players who are already tired from the world cup.
Instead of giving the players the rest they need so badly the brainless Fifa bosses came up with this stupid idea of playing friendly international games today. So they had to play those friendly games and the next qualifying games are only played at the end of March and that is in some 4,5 months time. So why on earth do they have to play those games in this period of the season when there is no international football on for months?
We could search for an answer for hours, days maybe weeks. We can reason, we can think, we can use all our brains to see some kind of logic in this. But in this, lies the difference between us and the people at Fifa/Uefa. Because to think you need….brains. And let it just be that little thing that is missing in the heads of the heads of Fifa/Uefa.
So lots of sleepless nights for the managers of the club teams for the moment. And all this because of some brainless people are telling countries to play stupid and meaningless games at a time that no one is asking for them. Not the clubs, not the players.
So all we can hope is that the 16, oh sorry it seems that we have already lost one player so make this in to 15 players will come back in good condition and fresh to play an important game for us. Losing players now could cost us very much in this season and we can only hope and pray that our remaining players stay fit. And let us just hope that at the end of the season we will not look back at this day in disgust and point at it and tell that this is the day we lost the title. Oh my god, how I hate Fifa/uefa for their brainless behaviour.
Oh and a final note: Samir Nasri is one of the contenders for the goal of the season worldwide. Just go to www.fifa.com and vote for his wonder goal against Porto.
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The reason Walter? The reason is…
…FANTASTIC GAMBLING OPPORTUNITY!
Kerrr-ching.
I blame the players, who should follow the example of John Terry when it comes to stupid international midweek friendlies. Although he is now genuinely injured, usually what happens is that on the prior Saturday during the game, he asks the ref to tell him when there are 30 seconds to go, whereby he starts to limp. Then the commentators gasp “Whoa, John Terry is limping, surely he must be a doubt for the visit of Maldovavakia on Wednesday when they visit Wembley with the sole intention of kicking the shit out of England.” Then sure enough, on Monday evening when Radio 5 are indulging in their usual bi-weekly Chelsea Orgasm Show (or, in the case of last Monday, Chelsea Reverse Orgasm Show) a shock announcement from the England camp is that John Terry has pulled out of the England squad. Good news usually follows on Friday during the second Orgasm Show when Stamford Bridge announce John Terry has recovered from his itchy thumb and is fit blah blah blah…
I think that is 14 Arsenal players playing today as Landsbury (counted in that 16) played yesterday what I unsterstood he made couple great saves as goalkeeper.
Also it’s not all friendlies tonight as Croatia, Malta, Finland and San Marino are playing for something. Well Finland and Malta are trying not to lose all EC qualification matches. I actually hope that Finnish press will be right and Finland will win (as it’s most likely last international match for Jari Litmanen) also it would show getting rid of S. Baxter was right thing to do (Funnily in summer he was linked with Celtic).
how can a player like van persie who hasn’t completed a full season with the club for….i don’t know…a millennium, wants to play in international and that too in an inconsequential match. Only players and only players are to blame for this madness. If rules are wrong then players need to stand up against them and clubs need to educate them. This is out and out exploitation.
On
OnL
Ivory Goonz please stop this – any more “On” stuff and I’ll cut you off in your prime.
Hi
I have said it before, but why can’t all the Internationals be grouped at the end of season (qualifying, freindlys etc. over say a 3 week period) in the years where no WC ou Euro.
Would keep the leagues happy and if players got injured on international duty would have the rest of the summer to recover.
WasWilshere injured whilst on international duty or was it something he picked up during the Everton game. I’m hoping for te latter and he’s just been left out as a precaution. I plan on doing another international injury round-up in the next injury index so we can see how we fair on this front. My feeling is that Spurs have been worst hit with Defoe and Dawson still out since gameweek 4.
I meant Lansbury naturaly.
Paul there might be problem with that as in Scandinavia and Russia season starts at late April and it ends in September. So it would really affect on those (Chance to delay the season would mean end of season would be played when there might be SNOW.
Oh BTW I’m happy now as even San Marino is last in FIFA ranking list at least we beat them. 8-0 (HT 1-0). Also that means our coach has success rate of 100%, this was his 1st match as main coach of any national team and who knows who will be in charge in next match played in June (no match for Finland in March).
BUt I do think this break was stupid and in wrong place. Now I might watch little bit of Denmark- Czech (to see Tomas Rosicky).
We can drop Nick from those Arsenal players too, he isn’t playing (not even on bench). Avoiding H.Webb again. Tomas Rosicky is playing tho. Right Webb is a referee in Denmark-Czech Rep. match (oh dear…)
Dale Wilshere tweeted that he had a knock at Everton match so it might be the reason but i’m not sure (I hope that was it so he can recover by Saturday).
@walter: who is the ‘one down’? i.e which player is already injured?
At the moment I wrote the article it was Jack Wilshere. But be carefull the games had to start at that moment.
I thought I saw Gibbs limp a bit as he was subbed, it was a tough game for him to play so soon after injury. England midfield was so poor that he was under pressure the whole time.
RVP situation has really annoyed me. If he breaks down in or after the Spuds game I will be really angry.
I gave Sammi a vote but i would be highly suspicious of the fact that I can’t see how they are all currently ranking against each other.
The voting is most likely a red herring with the picks made arbitrarily.
Sorry this post has been edited out
Indeed. I constantly question the validity and authenticity of these ‘polls’. I always end up feeling my vote was never counted…
Maybe its just paranoia, I get the same feeling after the general elections as well 😛
MERA(Media, EPL, Referee, AAA) empire had just conquered FICK FUFA and become MERAF kingdom… So it takes 5 kingdoms to set a fire going against Wenger kingdom… I feel top of the world already… Bring it on, our young warriors are prepared…!
Mr Broekkx
Your crass ignorance in understanding that international football became a part of world culture long before the invention of the European Cup or the League Cup show your prejudices through to the full.
It would be just as easy to say: why the bloody hell did the English invent the League Cup, as well as ‘why did UEFA clutter the fixture list with European club tournaments?’ as to write this stupid op-ed.
Tell me this: do you get paid by Arsenal FC to write this stuff?
Because it really would behove you to read your history books and write factually accurate articles rather than this ‘I’m paid to trash international football once a month and I hope I’ll get free tickets at Arsenal as a result’.
I do not consider your articles to be tongue-in-cheek, I consider them incompatible with you being a referee. As you clearly hold the world body in contempt, so I suggest you resign from refereeing right now or abide by the rules you signed up to.
You can’t hold authority as a referee if you don’t respect your ruling body, sonny jim.
Think about that……..
Mr Broekkx
Your crass ignorance in understanding that international football became a part of world culture long before the invention of the European Cup or the League Cup show your prejudices through to the full.
It would be just as easy to say: why the bloody hell did the English invent the League Cup, as well as ‘why did UEFA clutter the fixture list with European club tournaments?’ as to write this stupid op-ed.
Tell me this: do you get paid by Arsenal FC to write this stuff?
Because it really would behove you to read your history books and write factually accurate articles rather than this ‘I’m paid to trash international football once a month and I hope I’ll get free tickets at Arsenal as a result’.
I do not consider your articles to be tongue-in-cheek, I consider them incompatible with you being a referee. As you clearly hold the world body in contempt, so I suggest you resign from refereeing right now or abide by the rules you signed up to.
You can’t hold authority as a referee if you don’t respect your ruling body, sonny jim.
Think about that……..
Rhys – I hope you are joking because that is over the top. Nobody is debating whether or not international football has a place in the calendar, it does. What people are saying is why, oh why make players from all over Europe fly out to international duty in a random week for a bunch of meaningless friendlies when there are not competitive international matches for another few months. Why mess with players fitness like that? With Arsenal as just one example, we had a game on Sunday and another at lunchtime this Saturday and yet our players (and Spurs) are expected to traipse around Europe in midweek playing matches that mean absolutely zippo. That is the point that Walter is making, which I think is a reasonable point.
I hate international football but I realise it has a place. I just wish that FIFA didnt expect the clubs to like the idea of having their employees stolen for numerous periods throughout the season for no pay. And then if players get injured they expect the clubs to still pay the wages. What other industry in the world would allow that to happen?
Rhys, is what you are saying: shut up?
Because I am a ref I should shut up when I see something I don’t like?
If we would follow this reasoning then it would mean that in my country all of a sudden we would be without any refs any more. If you go to a meating of any refs association (the one I am a member of celebrates its 100th birthday this season) you will hear all of them complaining about the football federation for various reason. So according to you we would have the choice: stop as a ref or shut up.
Well most of them don’t shut up and try to change the system from within by complaining about what they feel is wrong.
And yes for my part international football may be stopped yesterday if possible. But I know many people have other opinions on this so I will still voice the fact I don’t like it because I think we live in a free world and every person is entitled to voice their opinion. But I will accept that my opinion is a minority opinion but I don’t see anything wrong in this.
Rhys
It is simple. The clubs pay the player’s salary and the costs of their injury. International games are a distraction during the playing season.
Have international football by all means – but spend a month on it after the season or plan your breaks more reasonably
I think you’ll find Rhys that Walter, as a referee, is only required to enforce the laws of the game on the field of play. His authority begins and ends there – these aformentioned laws aren’t set by FIFA (as far as I’m aware) but rather by the International Football Association which is made up by representatives of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This organisation is also a bit of a political shit-pit – but nowhere near as bad as FIFA who relentlessly disgrace themselves at every given opportunity.
I’m also fairly sure that Walter doesn’t have his FIFA badge… and probable will never get one as he speaks his mind too often and gives the impression that he like a fair game above all else.