Why there are not many international tournaments in football?

India
April 5, 2011 10:29am CST
Apart from world cup,as far as i know, there are very few international tournaments in football.I am not considering leagues because they are not played between countries. The friendly matches are there but they play only 1 game and not a tournament that has many matches. ALso,league football sucks because cheering for your country is lot better than cheering for a club. Why don't they play small tournaments with 2 or 3 countries,, like brazil VS arngentina playing a 3 match series etc.
9 responses
@marcmm (1804)
• Malaysia
6 Apr 11
There are many international tournament. We cannot compares football like other sports like rugby, cricket, basketball etc.... World Cup and Euro are there every 4 years. Coppa America, Concacaf Gold Cup, Asian Cup, Olympic games, African Nation Cup.... It just the matter if we want to follow all or not. What make the tournament lesser is because of the qualifying for major tournament. As for 3 match series, this is not rugby or cricket. that what make it special. Football stands their own rules and still the most popular sports in the world. About league football sucks, for some country league football does sucks. But for dominant league, league football is better than international football. it just a different of view I guess.
• India
12 Apr 11
I am a cricket fan.That is why i would like to see bilateral series in football also.I agree that league football are exciting but the problem is that in most of the leagues ,say,epl or spanish league or whatever, there are just 3 or 4 good teams and they easily defeat all other teams in the league.There is competetion between just 2 or 3 teams,say, barca and real madrid in spanish league etc.The other teams just play for the sake of playing..lol.
10 Apr 11
The qualifying for the tournaments takes years to complete. It takes 2 years for the countries to qualify for the world cup and european cups so there is not really time for any more tournaments.
@skysuccess (8858)
• Singapore
5 Apr 11
ravi_s2025, In the first place, I think you need to realize that the level of international tournaments game as it is today has been attributed by the various professional leagues especially the European ones. Look at the last World Cup champion and you have to agree with me that the Spanish league by far is the most entertaining and keenly contested wielding very impressive results. So, the leagues do not deteriorate the quality of the game and most of all competition. Even the Americans are catching on with the realization how important the professional league can be by starting their own professional league in the States. As for the international competition, it just have to have that culminating effect in order to let players be groomed individually and national teams enough time to train and blend for the ultimate competition like the World Cup or Euro or Olympics where in the latter has been slightly changed to allow new young talents be selected for the senior national team. So, we just cannot undermine the importance of these professional leagues.
@sjlskl (3382)
• Singapore
7 Apr 11
The problem is when two countries meet, beside the citizens, it is very hard to get neutral fans to get excited about. As for tournaments, each continent had their own tournament. Euro Cup, Copa America, African Nations Cup, Asian Cup. To be honest, except for Euro Cup, the rest hardly generate as much interest.
@rappeter13 (8608)
• Romania
6 Apr 11
Firstly, there is the money reason: We know that club football produces a lot more money than national teams. Secondly, club teams represent a smaller part of a country, a city, a region and maybe a different nation(ethnicity), like in Catalonia or Basque Land. For them, the national team is represented by Athletic Bilbao or partially by Barcelona or Espanyol. And thirdly, the international competitions like World Cup, Euro Champs or other continental tournaments are special because they are held only once at every few years. And there are the qualifying games and friendly games where we can see our national teams at work. I think this is good the way it is, because more national team games would take away from the specialness which they have.
• Oman
6 Apr 11
There aren't many international tournaments in football simply because not all countries around the globe get into football as a national sport. Some countries have basketball, cricket, ice hockey, baseball, rugby, and the like as their national sport and favorite past time. =)
@stevieboi19 (1419)
5 Apr 11
The World cup is jsut the most prominent competition we also have the Euros, African nations, Asian Cup, CONCACAF Gold Cup,FIFA Confederations Cup, Copa América ,OFC Nations Cup, Olympic games . There are probably others as well, I know that's a lot less than league competitions but think about it International competitions have an element of passion for most. So if the their where as many competitions as the leagues then essentially the we could lose passion/interest in the fixtures focussing once more on the bigger competitions such as we do currently on the World cup. Also with increased competitions comes more money which will only influence a nations choice to enter each competition . I don't agree that league competitions suck though in general terms their is more exiting football in league football with many nations itching for a victory over performances bar a few exceptions. I do think having more international competitions would only serve to take away from the sport. We need to look forward to the world cup and the others and not think oh it's just another international competition losing it's special feel of the competition would be terrible .
@polaris77 (2040)
• Bacau, Romania
5 Apr 11
Unfortunately,with so much money at stake in football nowadays,the interests of clubs prevail over those of national teams,and I think many players don't feel much too much joy when playing for their country,it's more like a burden to them,they just think about thec money they get from their clubs.That's why I think there are so few international tournaments apart from the World Cup and the continental tournaments.
@ajk111 (2495)
5 Apr 11
I think in Europe we have a good system. every 4 years we have the world cup and inbetween that we have the Euro competition so we have a major trophy to watch every 2 years. inbetween there are the qualifying internationals for those competitions so we have up to 6 internationals every year. Any more than that and i believe you would get in to overkill. i makedo with the Champions league inbetween the domestic games....plenty of footy to watch! Do you have continental international competitions where you are ravi?