There was a time when international week was the highlight for every self-respecting football fan in the world. By the time it had come around they would have exhausted all the possible combinations of players that in their candid opinion had a divine right to don colours of the national team. Club football only served as an aperitif for real football.

But how things have changed. For the average fan the international break has become something of an inconvenience, at best. Some use this period to go on holiday, help around the house and cast nothing more than a curious eye at the results of the matches involving their national colours.

The international game itself has become something of an anti-climax. For fans who are used to seeing the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Kaka week in, week out, the prospect of a tie at home to Estonia is nothing but a turn-off.

In all fairness, the fans who do follow internationals nowadays – minus, of course, those that suffer from borderline lunacy in their fanaticism – do so more out of duty than any great love of these games. Blow for blow, pound for pound, there is very little entertainment value in internationals. Even the connoisseurs of the beautiful game, the ones who penned the manual on how football should be played, Brazil, have gone the Jose Mourinho way and put results before entertainment.

‘Even the connoisseurs of the beautiful game, Brazil, have gone the Jose Mourinho way and put results before entertainment.’


One could argue that the national team has never been about the silky skills of the finest exponents of the game, but about the heart and soul of a nation encapsulated in a dogged performance akin to a pub team.

Now I am not saying that the international game should be abandoned, much the same way I am not about to abandon Test cricket just because the public prefer twenty20.There simply has to be some revolution in the presentation of the international game. The last two major tournaments have been abominable. Not much can be remembered from Greece's blip on the radar at Euro 2004, and last year’s World Cup, save for the Zidane incident in the final, was a damp squib.

A certain Sep Blatter seems to think an imposition of a limit on the foreign players in a club side is the answer. But, with all due respect Mr Blatter, who you would prefer to watch playing for your team? Francis Jeffers or Robin van Persie.