The only defense one could have for loving club football and hating on intl football might be that you’ve been supporting your club since you were 5, and you grew up within 30 minutes of the stadium, and your nation doesn’t have a shot at winning the WC. Otherwise, it is inexcusable.

Remember, it is only money and hot babes that footballers play for in club football; it is honour and pride and privilege that one plays for in international football.

That being said, if some of you simply got disillusioned with the structure of the qualifiers and the friendlies, then I dont know what to tell you. In the Asian zone, we have multiple rounds that are set up to avoid 10-0 thrashings if possible, so maybe go petition Blatter or something… And friendlies are necessary, just as club friendlies are “necessary”. Match fitness with a bit of money on the side…

I’m a gooner and int’ls are soundly hated by a LOT of gooners. It’s routine for Arsenal blogs all over the net to whine about internationals. Our club suffers a lot from these int’ls because the majority of our squad are called up. We’ve had 17 players called up during this 2-week int’l break. Three of our players are coming back injured just when we were building momentum for the business end of the season. It’s very rare to hear a gooner defend int’l breaks.

However, there are a few of us who still do like the int’l game to some extent. Those of us who do still watch these games argue that FIFA’s calendar for these int’l breaks is totally screwed up for club football and that there are better ways of scheduling these breaks. More importantly, there’s the larger argument of idiotic games like Italy v. Faroe Islands. Look at the comedy of Poland-San Marino at 10-0. Poland are hardly the cream of football, they’re not even going to the 2010 wc yet they smash San Marino with 10 unanswered goals. It’s a ludicrous waste of time, resources, money and clubs’ best players at the business end of the season to send their players out for absurd, wasteful int’l games against the likes of Liechtenstein.

There ARE things FIFA and UEFA could do to limit the constant tension between club v. country — like doing something about wasteful, idiotic games against the above-mentioned minnows, reworking the int’l calendar, etc. But that would mean less money going into FIFA coffers.

The wc is already watered down with 32 countries (and the Euros have been further watered down with 24 countries for the next tournament), several of whom offer very litte in the way of exciting, competitive football. It’s criminal that Africa gets only 5 spots at the wc when that continent has many more exciting, vibrant national teams than the abysmal CONCACAF, which also gets 5 seats. Certainly Europe gets far too many spots, esp. since some European teams who qualify for the wc are not at all worth watching.

I used to be a lot more excited by int’l football than I am today because the quality of the game on show was so much better. The quality has been in serious decline for years now. That said, it is still possible to watch some exciting football in these int’l games, and certain national teams still do provide good quality football.

And the simple fact is that there is no other event on planet earth that has the kind of global impact as the world cup — and that includes the champions league.

‘But it’s worth remembering that – though far from perfect – international football is still the pinnacle of the beautiful game.’
True. As much as I am like many who look forward to club football, the international week is always a chance to find out where are the players of the club you support are doing. As a Manchester United supporter myself, I was actually pleased that Jonny Evans’s Northern Ireland beat Poland and he himself was singled out as among those who did well. Though the Northern Ireland win came at the expense of Artur Boruc’s howler. Of course Dimitar Berbatov was injured before he joined up with his Bulgaria team-mates but, injuries are part and parcel of football.

Whereever the Manchester United players may be in helping their country’s World Cup qualification or being in action for friendly matches, I do take an interest. Just like how Wayne Rooney, Rio Ferdinand are doing for England as well. And if Michael Carrick gets to play. I was especially proud of how Carrick did back in last November in the friendly against Germany and all the more he was the only Manchester United player on the pitch in Berlin.

And on a personal note as for me coming from Singapore myself, though the furthest our national team got in the 2010 World Cup qualifiers is the third round in the Asian zone, it is an achievement for our football here. It was the furthest we had gone far in the history of our football scene and the newspapers were buzzing! I enjoyed the ride while it lasts. Back then when the draw was made in South Africa for the qualifiers, I get the goosebumps when my country’s name was mentioned. For my country to be mentioned alongside major footballing nations like England, Italy, France, Germany, Spain…I was like thinking at that time, ‘wow’. We may like our European football here (especially the Premier League) but, there was still a crowd watching our own national team in action during the qualifiers.

The same story for Alex Song, he was immense last year in the AFCON. I saw Adebayor boss Cameroon and show he has the ability to be as good as Eto’o, why is this not exciting?!! I enjoyed that match.

Personally, football is more exciting for me in the international game, especially qualifications, not so much friendlies, although dependent on which country you come from, friendlies are not a place to give players a chance, instead to build a unit to compete in a tournament, and this is why friendlies in the UK/Ireland are not as precious as in other countries. Don’t blame international football for coaches messing up the structure.