It's hard to imagine that a more nonsensical and pointless thing happened in the soccer world this week than Chad Ochocinco joining the Sporting Kansas City reserve team. But amazingly, the publicity- and stunt-loving ex-Bengal was outdone dozens of times, by teams all over the world: I'm talking, of course, about the evil of the "international friendly."
First, a little background: Over the course of the season, FIFA designates some periods, such as earlier this week, as times when games between international teams can occur (in other words, all national leagues are prohibited from scheduling games). Typically, the various soccer confederations will schedule qualifying for major tournaments (such as Euro 2012) during the designated periods.
However, the problem arises when the international teams take it upon themselves to schedule exhibition (read: meaningless) games during the same periods, often against teams from a totally different part of the world. For example, England played Ghana, the Republic of Ireland took on Uruguay, Brazil faced Scotland, and the United States played Argentina and Paraguay.
The national federations see this as a rare opportunity to do several things: make money through ticket sales, have their players practice together, put on a showcase for ex-pat fans and give call-ups to some younger squad members. All those things seem great on the surface, but the true nature of the games is a different story entirely. At best, they serve as just another game for already-overworked players, and at worst, they cause injuries that can seriously damage careers and clubs and thus are not even worth playing at all.
The whole problem stems from the fact that the games don't mean anything. If the games were really critical for the national teams, then OK, if a player gets injured or overworked, at least it was worth it. Injuries and fatigue are a part of the game. But when a player is in an exhibition game, or in other words, a game that he does not have to play in, the risk of an injury becomes intolerable.
The bottom line is that players are paid wages, and thus sustained as professionals by their respective clubs. If a player gets injured, the club will have to pay for medical treatment and, more importantly, suffer the absence of the player in the subsequent matches.
Unsurprisingly, there are numerous cases of players getting injured in these pointless international friendlies and then missing extended periods of time, significantly hurting their clubs. In one of the most high-profile cases the Arsenal striker Robin van Persie injured his ankle in a friendly while with the Dutch national team last season, causing him to miss five months, which significantly hurt Arsenal in the Premier League standings.
Imagine if Tom Brady or Derek Jeter were pulled from his team in the middle of the season, forced to play in an exhibition game and then suffered a serious injury. The public outcry would be out of this world. But instead, these international friendlies are simply accepted as part of the soccer world, and even though people complain about them from time to time, they continue to go on year after year.
The fact of the matter is that no one cares about the results of these matches, not even the players. Sure, they provide some entertainment and a chance for some of the younger players, but in the end, they shouldn't be played at all. It's time for FIFA and the various confederations to come to their senses and get rid of these pointless and dangerous matches.
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David McIntyre is a freshman who has not yet declared a major. He can be reached at David.McIntyre@tufts.edu.
