John Kennedy's career was effectively ended by a horrific tackle while on Scotland duty in 2004. Pic: © SNS Group
Europe’s largest representative body of football clubs has called on Fifa and Uefa to insure players against injury while playing for their national teams. The European Club Association (ECA) has said that it is not acceptable for its members to bear the financial burden of missing key players.
The ECA represents 197 of Europe’s football clubs, including Aberdeen, Celtic, Hearts and Rangers. Association chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said that current measures did not protect the interests of clubs and that they were being penalised for releasing their players for international duty.
Fifa compensated clubs to the extent of covering salaries during the World Cup and have changed qualification matches from Saturday and Wednesday to Friday and Tuesday to lessen the impact of the international calendar. However, players injured while playing for their country often miss vital games and Rummenigge, says the cost of missing stars cannot be borne by the clubs.
"FIFA and Uefa have to care about our players," he said.
"It is no longer acceptable that we have to give up our players ... and then they come back injured.
"If I rent a car I have to bring it back clean as if it was unused. With players we have to give them up yet have to pay, twice over if you like, when we get them back injured."
Rummenigge is also chairman of Bayern Munich and said they were the perfect example of the problem. Arjen Robben may not play again in 2010 after sustaining injury in South Africa.
"Robben is a classic case of a player going to the World Cup already injured and coming back in a worse condition and now we have to pay the bill," he said.
Celtic have felt the cost of international football in recent years. Promising defender John Kennedy sustained serious injury during his international debut against Romania in 2004. After three years of rehabilitation he launched the first of a series of failed comebacks but was finally forced to announce his retirement in 2009.
Rummenigge also called for an end to “meaningless” friendlies that he said placed too much of a demand on players who already play too many games.
"We will intervene more and more in the international match calendar," he added.
"Some countries are already playing their third series of internationals since the World Cup. We need deep discussions to find a solution. Federations like FIFA need to recognise that the players are our employees and we have to be involved in these kinds of discussions.
"The August friendly date was a nonsense. We have to make FIFA understand that certain things don't make sense. We have to discuss this with Mr (Sepp) Blatter and his colleagues in order to do something for the good of football.
"It is very dangerous to come back from a long tournament with only three weeks of holidays and with less than one week of preparation and then play a friendly for the national team. That kind of date has to be given up."
