Arsene Wenger, in a typical pose of disgruntlement
Robin van Persie’s nasty injury in a Holland v. Italy friendly didn’t just rob Arsenal of their best striker, but it’s about to send shockwaves through the soccer world. Arsene Wenger announced on Saturday that he was pursuing legal action against the Dutch FA and seeking compensation to help with RvP’s wages over the next few months.
Wenger’s breaking new ground with this one; what Bosman did for the transfer market, this motion is sure to do for the future of international football and its permanently rocky relationship with soccer clubs around the world. As the Arsenal manager noted, clubs are left to foot the wage bills for their crocked players who suffer injury while representing their countries, while the FAs get to pocket all the ticket, TV, sponsorship and FIFA money without ever having to dip in their pocket to assist the injured players with their recovery.
It’s an awful system, and this legal action could well pave the way for a radical reinvention of international duty.
Nearly three weeks ago, van Persie was crocked by Italian thug Giorgio Chiellini’s assault, suffering torn ankle ligaments and a 4-5 month spell in the physio’s room. Initially, the Dutch FA reported to Wenger that the injury was not too severe, but after the adventure with a Serbian clinic and horse placenta, scans revealed the full extent of the injury, something Wenger claims was underplayed by the Dutch doctors. That was the breaking point for the Arsenal manager, who stated his point of view over the weekend.
Quoth Wenger: “I am not against the national teams. But at the moment we sit here and they can do what they want. The players are paid by their clubs and get injured playing for another team. I am happy if England wins, but if we lose because England wins nobody cares about me. There is something completely wrong with the system. I want the power to be rebalanced more in favour of the clubs.”
Dramatic as this move may be, he’s absolutely correct.
I need look no further than Liverpool’s own Fernando Torres, who returned to Anfield several times over the last 18 months with various leg injuries either picked up during those interminable midweek knockabouts or aggravated at national team training. Each time there was empty commiseration from the Spanish FA and coaching staff, and precious little in the way of reassurance that it wouldn’t happen in the future.
Wenger’s not just asking for a compensation wrinkle, either; he’d like to see the international breaks reorganized to fall on weekends instead of Wednesdays, a logistical refinement that ensures players are not exhausted midweek and returning to their clubs tired for a league or cup game just three days later. “When you go to Sunderland and your players have just come back on Thursday night or Friday morning how can you prepare properly? It is impossible.”
Will this change anything? Possibly. If nothing else, FIFA and UEFA should now be forced to address the imbalance and move to assuage clubs and their managers, whose fears about the interlull are realized with every passing international break. Should the precedent finally get set (and it almost was, once; Belgian club Sporting Charleroi came close to getting compensation from FIFA for an injury sustained by Morocco’s Abdelmajid Oulmers in a friendly vs. Burkina Faso in 2004), one wonders whether fewer friendlies will get scheduled, or if national team managers will be forced to pick less of the top-shelf talent for these money-spinning, glorified practice sessions.
If we know anything about FIFA it’s that their utterly resistant to logical change, but with Wenger stepping out and voicing his dissent, it’s likely that many more high-profile managers will follow suit and force that this issue be given the respect it deserves.
2nd Burkina Faso mention of the day – I expect this to generate a lot of traffic from Ouagadougou
Why would Arsenal lose because of England? Walcott? I think not. Maybe he could say the same about France (or the Netherlands, of course), but his England analogy is off.
Wenger has a good point. However, let’s say we fix the international schedule where there’s only one mandatory break. I am thinking 4-6 weeks in late May/June where all tournaments, qualifying, and friendlies need to be played. Also, CONCACAF is banned from having the Gold Cup more than once every four years. If this happens, don’t you think the clubs will just fill the void with more games/competitions to make more money?
We need less games altogether. It’s never going to happen since it means less money.
AC Milan tried something similar with Gooch, but the fact that he was injured in a World Cup qualifier (and isn’t a key member of the squad) made it a little different.
didn’t Newcastle get compensation for Michael Owen’s WC injury?
The compensation issue opens a can of worms because while the Dutch FA may be in a position to pay a portion of RVP’s contract, The Togolese FA (for example) probably doesn’t have the funds sitting around to pay Adebayor’s. So does that meant that poorer countries find it increasingly difficult to get their best players to show up for national team games? Maybe the answer is a common pool (say 5% of gate receipts for all friendlies/WCQs worldwide) that could be used for compensation and administered by FIFA. Assuming, of course, that Jack Warner and Sepp Blatter wouldn’t steal all the money.
Yup, the worst culprits in all of this are the European FAs who keep scheduling meaningless friendlies in the middle of the club season for no purpose other than to generate revenue.
@ian: i think the word you are looking for is insurance. although, i’m sure the premiums wouldn’t be cheap, if your country only has one player on high wages, it wouldn’t be that high of a premium.
This all seems like something FIFA should, and could, take charge of. It pains me that I already know they won’t.
@JT: no way would FIFA spend more money when it could line its own pockets.
Ouagadougou. Best city name on the planet. Or at least the most fun to say… And I’m thinking Wenger was looking plenty gruntled when the final whistle blew Sunday.
Wenger’s full quote mentioned the Togo FA not being able to pay Adebayor’s wages and the issue about taking out insurance for players, like the English FA does. He also mentioned the high cost of insurance premiums and it becomes a catch-22 issue: we go broke paying premiums, go broke paying wages while a player is injured or just keep screwing over clubs because, heck, what do they do for player development?
@TFA — Newcastle did get compensated for Owen’s injury. There’s some weird stipulation that if you get hurt in a WC or championship tournament – ie Euros – you get compensated but not for friendlies or qualifiers.