The post-European hangover has been the bane of the Premier League’s top six sides for many a season, and we are no closer to finding a cure for it.
Last weekend saw a particularly bad case break out, as Liverpool, Everton and Tottenham Hotspur – all of whom were involved in midweek European action – suffered disappointing defeats to supposedly inferior opposition.
Talk of the phenomenon has become something of a ritual – it is discussed and dissected whenever a team loses domestically following a midweek continental fixture, yet no-one seems to have come up with a solution to the problem. Supporters of most other clubs can also be forgiven for finding the topic tedious, irritating and frankly insulting, given that Europe is but a pipe dream for the vast majority of teams playing in English football.
However, the adverse side-effects which come following a binge on the delights of European football do seem to be authentic, and are especially virulent after experiencing the less glamorous buzz of the Europa League. As well as Tottenham Hotspur and Everton, Swansea City are another team who in recent years have seen their league form slump as a consequence of participation in Europe’s second-tier club competition; such hardships have led many to view the Europa League as nothing more than a hindrance, an unwanted distraction which has a major detrimental affect on a team’s domestic performance.
It truly is a sad reflection on the state of modern football when a once grand and well-respected competition is treated with such derision; although UEFA have made Europa League football more desirable by awarding the winner a place in the following season’s Champions League, more can be done to make sure that teams don’t find their domestic objectives compromised by the added demands of European football.
UEFA could start the rehabilitation process by introducing a Day of Football as an accompaniment to its international counterpart, the Week of Football. By staging all matches – both Europa and Champions League – on the same day, teams who currently find themselves in the dreaded Thursday/Sunday routine would no longer have any basis to complain. Alternating midweek European games between a Tuesday and a Wednesday night would give every team participating in continental competitions equal and ample time to prepare for the weekend’s league fixture.
In order to further facilitate matters, the Premier League could introduce a Friday night fixture before any upcoming week of European football. Though having all teams with European commitments playing on a Friday evening would be impractical, there could conceivably be a rotation system whereby one or two of the sides play on one Friday, followed by another two teams whenever the next round of European matches approaches. The purpose of this would be to give teams the maximum amount of time to prepare for fixtures in a busy schedule; a Friday night game would enable a three-day break before a European game on a Tuesday night, which would subsequently allow for another three-day gap before the following weekend’s league games.
If the aforementioned Day of Football fell on a Wednesday, there would even be no need for a Friday night fixture, as a Saturday-Wednesday-Sunday schedule would still see a three-day pause between each game.
The final proposal involves the introduction of the much-mooted winter break in English football. Giving players a two-week respite over Christmas would lead to fewer cases of fatigue once the crucial knockout stages of continental competitions begin. The positive effects of such a break can be seen in the performances of Spanish sides in both European competitions; since the 2003/04 season, a Spanish team has won either the Europa League or the Champions League a total of ten times, compared to the four of England. The festive glut of fixtures which occurs at the end of December and into the New Year would be abandoned, with the matches scheduled instead for August and May, where the conditions would be much kinder on the players.
Novel propositions though these may be, the caveat is that they are purely theoretical, and would never realistically be implemented. The Day of Football, for starters, would lead to a huge loss in television revenues, while this is also the main reason why the introduction of a winter break looks unlikely to materialise. Nevertheless, if money continues to have such complete control over football, stifling any logical or practical arguments that could lead to a betterment of the game, then the post-European hangover is a headache that English teams will have to grin and bear for some time to come.
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