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Many European football critics are of the opinion that most friendly matches for national teams at a rather crucial time of the season when championships could be won or lost are a mere waste of time.
Club managers are hesitant to risk their star players and a medical certificate sometimes justifies their best players' absence from somewhat meaningless fixtures. On the other hand, national associations are usually committed on the number of friendly matches on their calendar per season when they are drafting seven-figure contracts with their sponsors. These considerations must be considered very seriously when one analyses the values or otherwise of such midweek fixtures at international level.
National team managers try and oblige the sponsors’ wishes while ensuring that they maintain a collaboration of sorts with managers of prominent teams that supply key players to the national squad. This they do by ‘forgetting’ about the big names and also by using a very high number of substitutes during the game. There were occasions when the whole team is changed at halftime and such matches become a farce.
If friendly matches are supposed to be auditions, then most of them are a sham. The players who are roped in because the established ones failed to join the squad, may still feel discarded by the manager when more important fixtures are played, despite the fact that these newcomers had done everything to impress the boss….when he was forced to name his eighteen players or even more than that number at times.
A very clear example is that of Spurs’ Jermaine Defoe, who played for England in the rather uninspiring bore in Gotebourg when Sven Goran Eriksson's side lost to his homeland’s selection. The England mentor, fresh from a very lucrative contract after being found out discussing terms with Chelsea's Chief Executive Officer Peter Kenyon at the latter's £1200-a-week flat in London, has a list of preferred players who are generally included in the side for competitive matches, even if they are doing poorly with their club. Emil Heskey who may be sold by his club Liverpool for less than £3m, because of his perennial crises of confidence with his club, is regarded ‘as important for us’ according to Eriksson!
Let's put it this way. Most national team managers rarely experiment with the side earmarked for important competitions like the European Nations Cup or the World Cup, just three months before the actual start of the competition, though the odd one may contemplate with one or two changes at most to the rather established side.
At such a time during the season, the pattern contrasts heavily with pre-season trial matches at club level. That is a different story altogether as new players are added to the side and need practise to fit into the pattern. The Italians have a number of try-outs against ‘boys’ or ‘amateur’ sides of limited strength, before the start of the league programme. Here we are talking about the national team not a club side.
Fixtures involving the national team scheduled at the climax of the domestic season present a number of problems for which there aren’t easy solutions. FIFA does not agree with many substitutions during such games and as from next season no more than five changes will be allowed, despite these being non-competitive fixtures.
During one of the meetings for national team managers, it was suggested that a four-day camp would be more beneficial to the squad, than these useless friendlies. This practical idea from the managers’ point of view met with a number of objections.
UEFA and a number of national associations, mindful of the revenue that such matches generate, apart from the obligations to the sponsors, insist that such matches are important.
In England the pattern of having top class players withdrawing from such fixtures started many decades ago, with Don Revie, holding on to his Leeds Utd players. He was dealt with his own medicine when he be came national team manager. Sir Alex Ferguson, Gerard Houllier, Arsene Wenger and others over the continent for that matter, who are known to be fiercely protective of their own clubs’ interests turned it into a habit. It was easy for Ferguson, for example, to start with a soft target when years ago he systematically denied young Ryan Giggs the opportunity to play regularly at international level. He knew there would be no reprisals, since Wales had no reprisals with which to respond. Having established the practice, Ferguson began to extend its use. Others joined the clan. It’s not fair to pinpoint the situation on Ferguson, for most managers of top clubs with a number of international players in the squad do the same. Not only in England, but everywhere.
Malta’s story
The situation is perhaps different in Malta, though it is not surprising that clubs fighting for the title are not generally pleased to release their best players for national team duties. Last Wednesday, while Finland affected eight substitutions, Heese and Busuttil made only three changes. Luke Dimech was brought over from England and the side performed well especially during the first half. It takes time to build a competitive side, when there are limitations in numbers and only one player playing in a higher standard league. Liverpool's lanky defender Sami Hyypia rightly admitted that Finland's improvement is because they have a number of players playing regularly abroad. We don't have that. We must admit our shortcomings; nevertheless we must appreciate a different mentality and a serious commitment. Heese and Busuttil have a harder challenge as our league competition is played at a rather slow pace. Many players seem to be having a breather during certain parts of the game and though they can get away with such a negative attitude against Maltese opponents, they suffer badly against foreigners, who capitalise on slack marking, which is normally brought about because of lack of stamina and fitness. Luke Dimech, Stefan Giglio and Michael Mifsud know exactly what I am trying to say.
Friendlies are the enemy of progress for some. Not in our case.
While national team managers of top countries need to keep the managers of top clubs on their side in order to guarantee the presence of their top players for the matches that count, for us any international fixture is priceless in order to have our limited lot in a better shape.
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