What happened to international football?
Most people would agree that international football is light years behind the club game right now. But this was not always the case. Historically, international football was much more captivating and influential.
In the past, international competitions offered the opportunity for the best players to face off against each other and gave fans rare opportunities to witness this. For the fans, there was the novelty of seeing obscure players running rings around your local heroes. Meanwhile, the politics of the past was more intertwined with football as governments looked for ways of using the popular sport to further their causes. The controversial Argentine World Cup triumph in 1978 is a fine example. International football had the gloss and status that club football just couldn’t match.
And although many of the great tactics of the past were honed in the club game (Total football, Ajax; Catenaccio, Inter Milan), their fame and influence lay primarily with their subsequent exposure at international tournaments. Today, the reverse is the case. Teams are quickly finding that tactics are not as transferrable between club and international football as the two become more different. For example, Spain’s pre-2014 possession game was a conservative version of Barcelona’s Tiki-Taka and international teams have been unable to replicate other successful systems in recent times (Dortmund’s pressing game or Antonio Conte’s high-intensity style at Juventus). Meanwhile, the watershed moments of the 20th century, more often than not were provided by international tournaments, especially the World Cup. However, those have been few and far between in the 21st century, with Zindane’s headbutt in 2006 and Holland’s destruction of Spain in 2014 as notable exceptions.
So what changed?
The factors that contributed to the boom in club football have been well documented: the Bosman ruling, the reform of the old European Cup and the explosion in TV licensing deals, all of which helped propel the European game to new heights.
The result was that the standard of club football rose tremendously. The UEFA Champions League is the symbol of this. The standard of play in this competition is way beyond anything that can be seen in international football. Talent has clustered in the strongest European leagues while beyond the major international tournaments, quality has declined in international football. Competitively, the comparison is stark.
When trying to understand why this has persisted, it is easy to underestimate the importance of good governance. The recent FIFA corruption scandals just show the extent to which the governing body was sucking from the game. In any case everyone knew that FIFA were more interested in monopolizing power and lining the pockets of executives than in developing the game. The smaller governing bodies are no role models but they at least understood that you can’t just milk the cow, you have to feed it too. UEFA’s recent reforms – FFP, extending the Euro championships, changing the Champions League seeding format etc may not all work out but they show clear attempts at governance. At making sure football does not consume itself. But UEFA has less power over international football than the club game. This could be a contributor.
One peculiar problem with international football is its irregularity. In this regard, it is similar to athletics, perhaps the standout international sport. But football is different. An inherently tribal game, continuity and variety are crucial for fans to build narratives and players to find form. The addictive, story line based form of football fandom makes it inevitable that club football, with its more regular doses, will trump international football. Club football has striven to satisfy the insatiable demand for football – through more competitions, more televised games, media coverage of related events, etc. It is much easier for fans to connect with players and storylines they revisit every week and it’s much easier for players to build chemistry with each other if they play regularly. Both of these make it unsurprisingly that club football is better and more attractive than international football. If international football has retained some of its exotic allure, club football has benefited from providing a weekly dose of its offerings.
Even with all this, one argument that refuses to die is the claim that international tournaments are the pinnacle of the game. In a way, this is true. This was the case historically and still makes sense given competitions are internationally run. Meanwhile the irregularity contributes towards this status. But it is hard to agree with this given what happens on the pitch. As a barometer of greatness, international football offers too few sample points for such important inferences to be drawn. Furthermore, the claim that this is part of the challenge – performing at the right place at the right time (again, like athletics), loses credence once you consider that football is a strong team sport (unlike athletics) and individual players, talented as they may be, have less power over results than we like to think. Memories of Maradona leading Argentina to World Cup victory in 1986 should be tempered with a recollection of the fact that for all the Messi/Ronaldo dominance of the last 8 years, victory has usually been determined by the team effort. Germany and Spain, the two previous World Cup winners, and the increase in double and treble-winning club sides demonstrate this trend. Ultimately, international football might provide players with a unique challenge but competitively, it is no longer the pinnacle of the game.
The juggernaut that is European club football is unlikely to be caught any time soon. But worries about the death of international football are premature. The international game will always be special because when players put on their national jerseys, they represent their country. There is an honour associated with the international game that club football, with all its wealth and drama, simply cannot match. The difference between club and international football is the difference between football as a job and football as a duty. Long live international football.