why has international duty gone from glamorous honour to annoying chore?

As a wave of player withdrawals decimate the leading nations, why has international duty gone from glamorous honour to annoying chore?
There was a time when being called up to represent your nation was a boyhood dream come true and the pinnacle of your football career.
But unless you’re Steven Gerrard and about to join the 100 club this week, it seems that representing your country in international football no longer has quite the glamorous appeal it once had.
Gerrard will need to pass a fitness test before facing Sweden in a friendly on Wednesday but England team-mates Theo Walcott, Wayne Rooney, Aaron Lennon, Kyle Walker and Jonjo Shelvey haven’t even risked it by pulling out of the squad completely.

Not risking it: Wayne Rooney picked up a knock playing for Manchester United at the weekend and withdrew from the England squad to face Sweden on Wednesday

Sorry, Roy... Liverpool's Jonjo Shelvey breaks the news to Roy Hodgson that he won't be involved this week
But it’s not just an England problem, with a wave of international withdrawals decimating squads from other nations. Some player excuses look more suspect than others.
Demba Ba for instance played the full 90 minutes of Newcastle’s 1-0 defeat at home to West Ham on Sunday and showed no visible signs of injury. But the striker has pulled out of Senegal’s squad to face Niger on Wednesday along with five other international team-mates.
If you’re Scottish (or English with a few ancestral links north of the border) the chances are you may want to sit by your phone as you could be next in line for a Scotland call-up in a squad managed by caretaker, Billy Stark.
Scotland, who sacked Craig Levein earlier this month, are without nine players from the original squad selected to play in Luxembourg – all of whom play for clubs in England’s Premier League or the Championship. Some would argue the home side may even be favourites now…

Down and out: Demba Ba was disappointed that Newcastle lost to West Ham on Sunday... so much so he withdrew from international duty
Even Europe’s big guns are in on it as Gael Clichy has pulled out of France’s squad to face Italy in Parma with a lower back injury despite playing 90 minutes in Manchester City’s 2-1 win against Tottenham.
Not even the blockbuster clashes are safe, with Germany hit by six absentees for their match with huge rivals, Holland. Miroslav Klose is convinced he cannot overcome a cold by Wednesday while Mesut Ozil’s withdrawal is officially because of ‘muscle problems’ – for what it’s worth that could be a dead arm.
On the positive side it does leave space for players to receive late international call-ups, with Shola Ameobi poised to make his Nigeria debut…although only because Chelsea pair John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses have been given leave by the Nigerian FA.
The 31-year-old who is capped at Under 21 level for England faces a long journey though as Nigeria face Venezuela in Miami. It’s no wonder friendlies take so much flack when you have an African side taking on a South American team in North America – what is the point?

Sniffles: Miroslav Klose scored at a rainy Stadio Olimpico in the Rome Derby on Sunday... but has since withdrawn from international duty with a cold
Believe it or not, friendlies still serve some purpose on the international front from a competitive standpoint.
They ultimately lead to FIFA ranking points, which in fine margins can be the difference between avoiding tougher sides in a major tournament or qualifying group.
To put that into perspective, a win for England on Wednesday could put them up two places to fourth in the world rankings while defeat may leave them as far down as eighth.
Should they make the World Cup in Brazil – that’s going from being a European top seed to a second seed (Brazil currently ranked 13th are automatically seeded top as hosts) so every win in any format does count.
But what does go against international friendlies is their puzzling schedule. Friendlies in the middle of August are incredibly disruptive to a domestic team’s preparation for a new season, while the current bouts of matches take place four months before the next round of UEFA’s World Cup qualifying games (discounting Northern Ireland v Azerbaijan and Macedonia v San Marino).

On leave: John Obi Mikel (left), played for Chelsea on Sunday but has been given leave by the Nigerian FA for this week
In truth the African sides have the Cup of Nations to prepare for in January (which makes Nigeria’s game in Miami even more confusing) but that doesn’t mean European sides have to compete too.
So who should we be blaming for all these international exiles? Should players care more about representing their country, regardless of where and when?
Or are the senseless selected dates of friendlies making it needlessly awkward for the football clubs that pay the players’ wages and nurture their talents?
There is always a place for friendlies but a more sensible solution would be to play them in the build-up to competitive games or in the usual fashion of just before a major tournament.
Ranking points or not, random friendlies are doing no one any favours.
It’s not quite the death of international football just yet but when did a boyhood dream become an annoying

 

when they started getting crap loads of money and club football esp the CL became huge. Its probably a lot to do with the managers of the respective clubs rather than the players themselves though.

For me though as its a friendly, get players in that you know probably wont make Brazil, but on the odd chance 1 or 5 may surprise the **** out of you and you cant leave them out. Pointless playing the 11 in your first team as you know they will be your first team anyway 90% of them anyway, so get others in and see how they get on.

 

well im sick of seeing us play crap in the 3 lions shirt

 

A ;ot I think has to do with playing 18 players in 90 minutes. Managers don't take these games seriously.

Also, the likes of Fergie saying "don't you hurt my pretty Rooney" gets in the way too.

There doesn't seem to be the same desire from the players to play either.

I would have loved to play for England, but would much rather have been picked to play for Sunderland!

x

 

This, pleased to see Osman and Zaha involved. Would like to see Stirling get a game.

 

East or Albion, Disco!

I'm here all week.......

x

 

Hahahaha not so enthused by either of them matey!

 

Moss?

x

 

It should be an honour to play for your country and as alluded in a previous post the money as royale ****ed this up. A solution would which should be implemented by FIFA would be that an individual pulling out of an international due to a so called injury should be banned for playing for their respected club the following weekend. It will never work though.

 

International football has been dwarfed by the CL unfortunately as the amount of players from various countries are paraded each year in that competition. England is probably the biggest loser in all this as we are not developing a balance between hame grown players and the imported ones.

I would be interested in a survey asking the players their choice of competitions - the World Cup v European Cup. I get a feeling in my water that the world cup will be consigned to the Olympics before too long.

 

Spot on blackcatsteve... nail hit with h....r, these managers,who are x player's would of given there pay packet, just to play for there country,but that was then,$$$$$$$$$$.

 

Agreed. my radical idea for the world cup is just to invite the 4 or 5 teams who have a chance of winning it. Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany and Spain, maybe france to make the numbers up. Then scrap all the qualifiers et cetera just invite these six and the whole thing could be over with in about 10 days and stop wasting everybody's time.

 

I think that problem is 2 fold, and I am going to contradict myself here a bit.

1: Too many Foreigners in our game

This is what makes the PL so watchable but it is destroying our International game, yes other leagues have foreigners in them, but nowhere near the amount we have, Barca I think have 6 of the Spanish squad, RM 4 at least, here its a hotchpotch of clubs, 3 here 2 there 1 elsewhere, so as they dont play week in week out with each other when they do play they havnt got a clue what each one is doing.

Now would I like to see 6 from Man U and 4 from Chelsea in the 1st team, of course not we would all be complaining of favouritism and none of our English players would get a chance, But it has worked for Spain.

2: Not enough of our players abroad

You could argue Italy/Spain doesnt either, but they seem to have a lot more Italians/Spanish playing in their first team club squads, which puts us back to point 1, but I do think players should experience other cultures/languages/tactics from abroad to become better players, epecially as space in the top club sides are limited, yes you have to have a certain number in your squad (young english players), but you dont have to play them. It grates on me a bit when another PL club or a lower league club gets a young English player on loan, I always wish a mid table Spanish/French/Italian/German team would come in and get them for a season instead. I am not saying they wont learn anything in England, I just think they would learn a whole lot more/different abroad.

 

Personally I think international managers should have the power to pull rank with clubs cooperating in disciplining players who refuse to play without good reason.

I'd love for Roy to be able to say, "England's physios will look at Rooney and decide if he is fit to play." Sadly, with so much money tied up in players like Wayne, should he get injured badly then the FA would be liable to millions in compensation.

Clubs have the power to intimidate national setups and backed by agents so do players. If the FA were to redirect some of the EPL prize money to performance bonuses for England players they'd soon be singing the national anthem!

 

Excellent analysis Steve well thought out

 

now there is a ****ing good idea

 

I dont give much of a toss about England tbh. NUFC all day long for me.