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Demands
No 'nonsense': Euro club association takes stand against internationals
The president of the European Club Association, Bayern Munich chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, has called for the number of international fixtures to be dramatically reduced.
SPEAKING AT THE European Club Association’s annual congress, the body’s president and chief executive of Bayern Munich, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, has reiterated his organisation’s desire to see a dramatic reduction in the number of matches played by international sides.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the German castigated UEFA and FIFA for littering the international calendar with “nonsense” fixtures and expressed a desire to redress the balance of European football in favour of clubs, as opposed to national associations.
Rummenigge claimed the current system is biased “in favour of national teams,” leaving players with little or no time in which to recuperate during the off-season.
“When you look at the June dates, players wait three weeks after the end of the season for a double header. It’s hard to keep them fit.”
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The ECA counts a number of the continent’s largest clubs among its membership, including Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, meaning that the influence it is capable of wielding in these matters is not insignificant.
Today’s pronouncement on the subject of reform comes as the ECA’s second in as many months, underlining the extent to which the organisation has begun to pursue its goals more aggressively in the wake of FIFA’s electoral debacle.
No 'nonsense': Euro club association takes stand against internationals
SPEAKING AT THE European Club Association’s annual congress, the body’s president and chief executive of Bayern Munich, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, has reiterated his organisation’s desire to see a dramatic reduction in the number of matches played by international sides.
According to a report in the Daily Mail, the German castigated UEFA and FIFA for littering the international calendar with “nonsense” fixtures and expressed a desire to redress the balance of European football in favour of clubs, as opposed to national associations.
Rummenigge claimed the current system is biased “in favour of national teams,” leaving players with little or no time in which to recuperate during the off-season.
“When you look at the June dates, players wait three weeks after the end of the season for a double header. It’s hard to keep them fit.”
The ECA counts a number of the continent’s largest clubs among its membership, including Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea, meaning that the influence it is capable of wielding in these matters is not insignificant.
Today’s pronouncement on the subject of reform comes as the ECA’s second in as many months, underlining the extent to which the organisation has begun to pursue its goals more aggressively in the wake of FIFA’s electoral debacle.
For more information, read Daily Mail>
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