'Uefa care about money not players' - Thibby Courtois

VP89

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I wish more players said this. There are too many games no one gives a feck about.
 

FrankDrebin

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The Nations League for a start. Who gives a flying feck about that ?
 

arthurka

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FIFA is the ones that he should bug because of the WC but that crap comp Nations League can feck itself.
He is bang on though.
 

JPRouve

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Perhaps they feel the balance is wrong, and could benefit from less money and less games?
Who is they? Courtois represents a relaatively small amount of players that have the opportunity to go far in competitions.
 

11101

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Nobody really but wasn't that just replacing the existing friendlies in order to make them competitive? I'm not sure it's added many extra games, although I could be wrong about that.
Friendlies were an opportunity for fringe players to represent their country, and others got a rest. Now there's a trophy behind it the same players play every game.
 

mav_9me

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Who is they? Courtois represents a relaatively small amount of players that have the opportunity to go far in competitions.
They would be Courtois and any player who agrees with him. Yes it's a minority of professionals.
 

Big Ben Foster

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He's right but it's a bit rich (no pun intended) that it's coming from him, of all players.
 

JPRouve

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They would be Courtois and any player who agrees with him. Yes it's a minority of professionals.
Knowing that, do they have a point? Or are they disingenuous and selfcentered?
 

massi83

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Nation's league is great you elitist weirdos. A-league teams can rotate a bit more if they feel like it.
 

TMDaines

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The Nations League for a start. Who gives a flying feck about that ?
The consensus is it has been a great success. All of the countries get opportunities out of it, whether it be qualifying for major tournaments, fighting for another piece of silverware, or competitive fixtures against suitable opponents. Far better than the friendlies that used to more regularly populate the calendar. The Italy v Spain and Spain v France matches were two of the best matches this year. I missed Belgium v France, so cannot comment on that,
 

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Friendlies were an opportunity for fringe players to represent their country, and others got a rest. Now there's a trophy behind it the same players play every game.
Fair point for the latter stages, I suppose. I think there's plenty of games where teams can experiment and try fringe players out.
 

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Yeah but "we got our game back" so who cares?
 

JPRouve

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Footballers are unionized, they can go on a strike and ask for a 40 games ber season limit, if your teams play 70 games then that's 30 games for an other player. But there is no reasonable reasons to complain about the maximum amount of games that a player could play when his backup is given next to zero minutes per season, last season Lunin played one game for Real Madrid, he was as fresh as it gets.
 

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Poor guy. They should be given paid vacations by the club/country/UEFA/FIFA for their well being
 

justsomebloke

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Strong words from Thibault Courtois last night(?) about UEFA, suggesting they only care about money and not players...

Main quotes:

"This just shows that we play too many games," Courtois continued. "Next year we have a World Cup in November, we maybe have to play until the latter stages of June again. We will get injured and nobody cares about the players anymore.

"After a long season we will have to play four games in the Nations League again, we will have two weeks' holiday and that's not enough for players to be able to continue playing 12 months at the highest level.

"If we never say anything it will always be the same. They (Uefa) can be angry about other teams making a Super League but they don't care about the players, they just care about their pockets."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58870597

Foughts?
Absolutely true.
 

saivet

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The third placed play-off does seem pointless (in the World Cup too) but no issues with the Nations League as it's much better than having loads of friendlies played during international breaks.
 

MackRobinson

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Players at the highest level should be the last ones to complain about others caring about money.

Ask the players if they're willing to take the paycuts to reflect the fewer amount of games they're asking for and there will be a resounding no.
Well that’s not how it works, so there’s that.
 

Ayoba

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He‘s completely right and I think the quality of the game is suffering massively from far too many games being played.
Exactly this! I'm actually sick of the sheer amount of games that are on, it would be nice to have a reduced schedule and less pointless competitions like the nation's league.
 

elmo

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The third placed play-off does seem pointless (in the World Cup too) but no issues with the Nations League as it's much better than having loads of friendlies played during international breaks.
It's just a glorified friendly that's been renamed :lol:

If they want to make it an actual tournament, peg the qualifiers for the world cup and UEFA based on the nations league results.
 

saivet

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It's just a glorified friendly that's been renamed :lol:

If they want to make it an actual tournament, peg the qualifiers for the world cup and UEFA based on the nations league results.
More or less but fans and players seem engaged with them, so they seem like a decent balance to me as they've provided a lot of good football. It also does link to qualifiers, albeit in a convoluted way.
 

justsomebloke

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Players at the highest level should be the last ones to complain about others caring about money.

Ask the players if they're willing to take the paycuts to reflect the fewer amount of games they're asking for and there will be a resounding no.
Players don't get paid for the amount of games they play (other than individual bonus clauses). They don't get a pay rise if the number of games increase. Also, the main variable is national team games, which is outside their salary anyway (and I highly doubt whatever they get paid for that by the federations matters much to the sort of players who get the biggest exposure playing for top club and national sides).
 

RedDevil@84

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Players don't get paid for the amount of games they play (other than individual bonus clauses). They don't get a pay rise if the number of games increase. Also, the main variable is national team games, which is outside their salary anyway (and I highly doubt whatever they get paid for that by the federations matters much to the sort of players who get the biggest exposure playing for top club and national sides).
If they think that the fluctuating schedule is a concern, maybe they should tell their agents that they have a max number of games clause included in the contracts. Initially, the clubs may not agree, but if all players start asking for it, that will be come a norm.
If players get paid only peanuts per game (relative to their club money) while on international duty, they should demand more I guess. Else, not play. If you get kicked out of team for that, so be it.
 

justsomebloke

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If they think that the fluctuating schedule is a concern, maybe they should tell their agents that they have a max number of games clause included in the contracts. Initially, the clubs may not agree, but if all players start asking for it, that will be come a norm.
If players get paid only peanuts per game (relative to their club money) while on international duty, they should demand more I guess. Else, not play. If you get kicked out of team for that, so be it.
That would be very bad, in my view. The party in all of this that gets the least out of it all, and which actually could legitimately put to good use almost any amount of money, is the federations. They're the ones who are funding most of the whole pyramid, down to the lowest age bracket and everywhere in the country. It wouldn't be good if players who are already earning huge amounts would take a bigger piece of that cake. Nor of course would it do anything at all to solve the basic problem, which is that football players are being asked to do so much playing with so little downtime that it's going to affect their durability and performance. Which for fans translates to less good football.

Max number of games, I like better. But I don't think players can be expected to do that individually. Maybe the leagues need to play hardball with UEFA collectively, and threaten to only release players for a certain number of international games annually?
 

the_answer

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Way too many pointless games no one cares about.
Nations League/Carabao Cup etc. etc.

I wonder why those "big players" dont just sit out those games and let some youngsters go.
Also if I were playing football, id just retire from the national team...
 

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Desperately depressing, everything to do with the governance of the game. When you see the likes of Wenger being sucked into the system and become the poster boy for a biennial world cup, you have to despair. Crooks and charlatans, every one.
 

mav_9me

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Knowing that, do they have a point? Or are they disingenuous and selfcentered?
They have a point but problem is their renumeration is not tied to games played. So how do you decide how to cut money based off how many games less, particularly the national games for which they are not really paid huge sums.
 

JPRouve

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They have a point but problem is their renumeration is not tied to games played. So how do you decide how to cut money based off how many games less, particularly the national games for which they are not really paid huge sums.
Who talked about them being paid per game? I don't care about how they want their contracts to be structured. Courtois has no point, zero, nada, if he is that tired why doesn't he ask his club to not use him 38 times in the league? International Football is not professional, they shouldn't be paid huge sums, the money is supposed to go mainly to federations and help fund grassroot Football which all professional footballers benefitted from.

But that's beside the point, if the worry is about injuries I have a simple suggestion for players of top teams that are worried about going too far into competitions and being too tired. Ask your clubs that are stockpilling talented players just to never really use them to finally use them and we can start with giving Lunin at least 10 La Liga games per season and all Copa Del Rey games.
 

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The Nations League for a start. Who gives a flying feck about that ?
I do. Much better level than the Euro Qualifiers. And the number of games didn't increased.

The main idea is not the trophy being more important than the Euros or the World Cup, but actually to increase the number of competitive games between the best European National Teams and you have 4 levels for each NT, so you will see teams like Gibraltar or San Marino testing themselves against similar level oposition and having the chance to get promoted.

Easily the best idea UEFA had since the introduction of the Champions League. Personally would scrap the third place match, other than that it is nothing like glorified friendlies, that's just ridiculous. Don't like don't watch it. Simple.
 
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Andersonson

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If it continues we will see more and more players not turning up for their national teams. That's my belief of it, it doesn't pay as much and they need rest. Wouldn't be surprised if several stars opt out of national duty in the coming years
 

golden_blunder

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Pointless tournament. Pointless.
same as adding a World Cup every 2 years.
Money money money
It’s about time football tried to refind it’s soul again
 

SCP

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Pointless tournament. Pointless.
same as adding a World Cup every 2 years.
Money money money
It’s about time football tried to refind it’s soul again
Pointless for some. Not for me. The Nations League, the WC every 2 years agree with you.
 
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TheLord

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Ironical when someone blames UEFA for caring about "money and nothing else" when he himself forced a move to Real Madrid a couple of years ago for "money and nothing else".

I agree with the "too many matches", though. I'd be happy if players with better integrity spoke against the UEFA parasites.
 

golden_blunder

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Ironical when someone blames UEFA for caring about "money and nothing else" when he himself forced a move to Real Madrid a couple of years ago for "money and nothing else".

I agree with the "too many matches", though. I'd be happy if players with better integrity spoke against the UEFA parasites.
How about people look beyond the messenger and instead focus on the message
 

SCP

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Ironical when someone blames UEFA for caring about "money and nothing else" when he himself forced a move to Real Madrid a couple of years ago for "money and nothing else"
No one forced him to play, if he is tired don't show up. Had he won the match maybe the conversation would be different. But the third place game maybe should be scrapped.
 

TheLord

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How about people look beyond the messenger and instead focus on the message
Because if Saudi rulers talked about human right conditions in Afghanistan, it will NOT resonate with the common man, even though there's nothing wrong with the message.