It’s the never-ending season.
Summer used to mean a three-month break in European soccer. Now the hiatus is down to a few weeks. League seasons already have resumed in France and Scotland, the German season starts on Friday and the English Premier League begins on August 13.
Rich clubs such as Real Madrid and Manchester United spent July on lucrative preseason tours of Asia. Chelsea and AC Milan played friendlies in the United States.
The saturation has been blamed for a decline in television ratings and led to concerns about player fatigue, burnout and injuries. In Asia, fans complained about lacklustre matches, high ticket prices and crass commercialism.
”There’s a bit more football than there used to be,” said Stefan Szymanski, a professor of sports economics at Tanaka Business School in London. ”But there is a lot more meaningless football being played.”
Deportivo la Coruna had the shortest summer of all. The Spanish club ended the league season on May 29, and was playing again 33 days later — on July 2 — in the Intertoto Cup.
There’s been little time off, too, for European champion Liverpool. The Reds won the Champions League title on May 25 — stunning AC Milan on penalties — and resumed 47 days later chasing a qualifying spot in the same tournament.
”Clubs used to prepare for the season in the twilight. You didn’t know it was going on,” said John Williams, director for the Centre for the Sociology of Sport at the University of Leicester. ”Now with the proliferation of TV coverage — even preseason coverage — there is a sense that football never stops.”
Next year’s World Cup in Germany, which runs from June 9 to July 9, has added to the squeeze. Some domestic leagues are starting a bit earlier and ending earlier to give players four weeks’ rest — instead of three.
The idea came from England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, who blamed player fatigue for his club’s quarterfinal exits at the 2002 World Cup and 2004 European Championship.
”It might seem stupid, but one week is like gold,” Eriksson said.
On tours of Asia, players from Real Madrid, Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich griped about the travel and meaningless games.
”We have come to win the hearts of the Japanese, but it’s not easy with so many journeys, flights, buses and promotional acts,” Madrid’s Ronaldo said.
Ronaldo and teammate Zinedine Zidane moaned about the Asian roadshow, reportedly worth about â,¬21-million to the club. Coach Vanderlei Luxemburgo had little sympathy for the two, who both have annual incomes of about $20-million.
”This is soccer,” he said. ”A club like Real Madrid must have a commercial side like this to earn money and exchange soccer experiences with other countries.”
How much is too much?
How many games can players sustain without risking injury?
”Nobody really knows what is the optimum or maximum games per year,” said Professor Jiri Dvorak, Fifa’s chief medical officer.
”I’d say about 50 to 60 games per year was OK, reasonable,” he said. ”But 70 to 80 is really the upper limit. I think it would be very difficult to increase the number of games much more.”
Consider the top players at English champion Chelsea, owned by Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich. He has spent about $500-million on players since buying the club two years ago.
Last season, Chelsea played 38 league games, 12 in the Champions League, three more in the FA Cup and six in the League Cup. In addition, top players were involved in 11 England national team games. Throw in six warm-up matches, including Sunday’s Charity Shield game against Arsenal, and the total is 76.
”It’s pretty clear that over the past four or five years there have been more and more matches for the top players, for the top clubs,” Uefa spokesperson Rob Faulkner said. ”There’s no doubt they are reaching a limit now, and we’re sensitive to that.
”It’s a double-edged sword,” he added. ”The popularity of the sport means more economic interests, more people investing in the game, and more pressure on the players with their larger salaries.”
With more money involved, players are being watched more carefully by coaches — and clubs more carefully by sponsors.
”It’s not that’s it’s so terribly difficult to play two football games a week; the problem is that it’s very difficult to be at the top of your game every single time you play,” Szymanski, the sports economist, said.
The world’s most burned-out player might be Man United’s Argentine defender Gabriel Heinze, who played almost non-stop for two years.
After the 2003/04 domestic season in France with Paris Saint-Germain, he played in the Copa America followed by last year’s Olympics. Next came a full Premier League season, capped by the Confederations Cup. Brazil beat Argentina 4-1 in the June 29 final.
Heinze was given July off, skipping Man United’s games in Asia.
Popular for a few years, the Asian tours were widely criticised this time. Fans recognised lacklustre play and complained about ticket prices, some of which amounted to an average two weeks’ wages.
”The public is detecting — here and over there — a lack of substance in what’s being done, and that’s serious,” the Spanish sport daily AS wrote.
”The stadiums are not full, Spanish television stations are not going crazy to televise the games and audience levels are not high,” the paper added.
Mohamed bin Hammam, president of the Asian Football Confederation, called the European clubs ”money-minded opportunists”.
The Nation newspaper in Bangkok, Thailand, was also scathing in its comments.
”Real Madrid and other wealthy clubs are the embodiment of much that is wrong in the modern game,” the paper said.
”And that is today’s football. It’s almost purely commercial. Loyalty and true passion have been eclipsed by the lure of obscene salaries, agents’ dirty manoeuvring and all the rest that makes up the ugly business side of club football.” — Sapa-AP