Barthélémy Constantin is sports director of FC Sion. At 30 years old, in office for around ten years, he is the boss of a Super League club with the greatest longevity in the Swiss elite. In his spare time, he comments on ball game news for lematin.ch.
Since I was little, I have been drinking football, eating football, breathing football. We have football every day, everywhere, in all its forms. Except that… The emotions of the Saturday evening of the time, on the sofa with dad in front of a Milan-Juve, are becoming more and more rare (30 years old and already jaded, what a spoiled child you will tell me. It’s possible!).
In recent months, I have heard more and more voices raised against this surplus of football. Players and coaches, mainly, denounce the infernal pace of the football calendar imposed on them. Oddly, I never hear complaints about the income that comes with this overconsumption of football.
So it wasn’t my surprise when on Thursday evening I discovered the draw for the pools for the next Club World Cup. Real Madrid of Bellingham is there. The Manchester City of Guardiola and De Bruyne too. Hey, Müller’s Bayern will also be there! Simeone and Atlético will also travel to the United States. So many names who, in the last 6 months, have protested against the multiplication of matches.
-A closed competition or, if you have Messi in your team, you are invited. A competition with TV rights exceeding one billion, free for viewers and financed by a Gulf country. The Super League is not very far away. So stop the ambient hypocrisy. Let football players boycott this marriage of convenience or keep silent forever.
In the meantime, I’m not sure that PSG-Botafogo next June will provide the same emotions as an Inzaghi goal (admittedly offside…) during Milan-Juve in April. A word to the wise!
