plato-ny
06-24-2005, 06:31 PM
An article about this:
Sometimes things are so obvious that even children understand it. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Eat a slice of cake (or two) and it's wonderful. Eat the whole darn cake and you're bound to head for a place populated by bellyaches, nausea and puke.
That's the message FIFA doesn't seem to get every time they try to ram the Confederations' Cup down people's throats. Watching talented players like Ronaldinho, Michael Ballack and Carlos Tevez is great. Making these guys to play in an irrelevant competition after we've been seeing them week in, week out for the last ten months ranks somewhere between the moronic and the sadistic.
Footballers simply don't get any real time off, unlike most other athletes in team sports. Basketball has an off-season. So does baseball, the NFL, ice hockey... heck, even Formula One and NASCAR take a break. But FIFA has decided that the lights never go out. Which is why a club like Romania's Cluj can play its final league fixture on June 11 and then play in the first round of the InterToto Cup a week later.
Simply put, it's insane and it's dangerous. The players know this, which is why the Confederations' Cup is generally played at anything but full throttle. But they are still competitive games and the risk of injury or just sheer fatigue -- the kind that can have serious repercussions down the road -- is very real.
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What can be gained from putting Kaka or Ronaldinho through a grueling season and then sending them to Germany for another three weeks' worth of games?
Very little. Some TV channels fill extra air-time (though whether anybody is tuning in is another matter). Germany gets a dress rehearsal for the 2006 World Cup (though there is a huge difference between 32 teams and 8 teams, so it remains to be seen just how worthwhile it is). And we get to see more of the world's best squaring off against each other (though how seriously they take it is another matter).
Now consider the negatives. It cannibalizes attention from what should be FIFA's real showcase in years like this, the under-20 World Cup, which is a real competition, featuring the stars of tomorrow. It diminishes the expectation and anticipation for the upcoming season. And, most of all, it takes its toll on the players themselves.
By the time the Confederations' Cup ends, on June 29, Kaka, for example, will have played more than sixty games this season. Milan's training camp starts 16 days later, on July 14. Ten days after that, the rossoneri play their first pre-season match, in Boston no less, against Chelsea. Which means that, in less than a month, Kaka gets to go from Germany to Brazil to Italy to the U.S. -- while squeezing in his summer holiday along the way.
And then the fun starts; another long and grueling season with Milan, followed by the World Cup itself in Germany. What physical condition will he find himself in when Germany 2006 rolls around? We can only guess.
When will the powers-that-be realize that less is, in fact, more? And that the Confederations' Cup is a silly pointless competition which simply saps energy, resources and attention from the tournaments that really matter?
At the 2006 World Cup, anyone who loves the game will want to see the biggest stars at the peak of their powers, in top physical condition. We don't want to see a freakshow of fatigued and out-of-form players dragging themselves around the pitch.
But that's what's going to happen if FIFA don't come to their senses. These guys aren't robots or wind-up dolls. They are human beings and they can only do so much. Pushing them in the name of profit and commercial gain like some kind of circus sideshow is not just wrong, it's counterproductive.
Which is why, like many, I could care less about the Confederations' Cup. And, hopefully, if enough of us simply ignore it, FIFA will get rid of it for good.
Its only about making extra money anyway
Sometimes things are so obvious that even children understand it. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing. Eat a slice of cake (or two) and it's wonderful. Eat the whole darn cake and you're bound to head for a place populated by bellyaches, nausea and puke.
That's the message FIFA doesn't seem to get every time they try to ram the Confederations' Cup down people's throats. Watching talented players like Ronaldinho, Michael Ballack and Carlos Tevez is great. Making these guys to play in an irrelevant competition after we've been seeing them week in, week out for the last ten months ranks somewhere between the moronic and the sadistic.
Footballers simply don't get any real time off, unlike most other athletes in team sports. Basketball has an off-season. So does baseball, the NFL, ice hockey... heck, even Formula One and NASCAR take a break. But FIFA has decided that the lights never go out. Which is why a club like Romania's Cluj can play its final league fixture on June 11 and then play in the first round of the InterToto Cup a week later.
Simply put, it's insane and it's dangerous. The players know this, which is why the Confederations' Cup is generally played at anything but full throttle. But they are still competitive games and the risk of injury or just sheer fatigue -- the kind that can have serious repercussions down the road -- is very real.
ADVERTISEMENT
What can be gained from putting Kaka or Ronaldinho through a grueling season and then sending them to Germany for another three weeks' worth of games?
Very little. Some TV channels fill extra air-time (though whether anybody is tuning in is another matter). Germany gets a dress rehearsal for the 2006 World Cup (though there is a huge difference between 32 teams and 8 teams, so it remains to be seen just how worthwhile it is). And we get to see more of the world's best squaring off against each other (though how seriously they take it is another matter).
Now consider the negatives. It cannibalizes attention from what should be FIFA's real showcase in years like this, the under-20 World Cup, which is a real competition, featuring the stars of tomorrow. It diminishes the expectation and anticipation for the upcoming season. And, most of all, it takes its toll on the players themselves.
By the time the Confederations' Cup ends, on June 29, Kaka, for example, will have played more than sixty games this season. Milan's training camp starts 16 days later, on July 14. Ten days after that, the rossoneri play their first pre-season match, in Boston no less, against Chelsea. Which means that, in less than a month, Kaka gets to go from Germany to Brazil to Italy to the U.S. -- while squeezing in his summer holiday along the way.
And then the fun starts; another long and grueling season with Milan, followed by the World Cup itself in Germany. What physical condition will he find himself in when Germany 2006 rolls around? We can only guess.
When will the powers-that-be realize that less is, in fact, more? And that the Confederations' Cup is a silly pointless competition which simply saps energy, resources and attention from the tournaments that really matter?
At the 2006 World Cup, anyone who loves the game will want to see the biggest stars at the peak of their powers, in top physical condition. We don't want to see a freakshow of fatigued and out-of-form players dragging themselves around the pitch.
But that's what's going to happen if FIFA don't come to their senses. These guys aren't robots or wind-up dolls. They are human beings and they can only do so much. Pushing them in the name of profit and commercial gain like some kind of circus sideshow is not just wrong, it's counterproductive.
Which is why, like many, I could care less about the Confederations' Cup. And, hopefully, if enough of us simply ignore it, FIFA will get rid of it for good.
Its only about making extra money anyway