International Football - Boring boring weekend

Well.... I get through it, a weekend without club football. The 2 weeks international break is on with the Euro 2012 qualifying games and friendly matches played during the weekend and the next couple of days before the league resume.

When we talk about international games during the season, its hard to avoid the club versus country debate. With the importance of results in club football, the last thing managers want is their star players getting injured during the international break while playing with their national colours. Players getting back exhausted from travelling, playing too many games and involving in useless friendly matches has become and issue for club managers, but is there anyway to resolve the matter for the goods of the national teams, clubs as well as the players?

From a fan point of view, i think except from the World Cup or European Cup finals, the qualification games didn't really excites everyone. The matches usually are straight forward with most of the matches aren't competitive enough, for example Kazakhstan against the mighty Germans. Yes, maybe for some Kazakhstanis the prospect of seeing the likes of Klose, Schweinsteiger and co is intriguing. But for neutrals, a one sided affair between a nation ranked 126 against semi finalist of the recently concluded World Cup is not really stimulating much interest.

The club managers don't like it, the fans can do without it but the games must be played. Is there any other way to accommodate this international games into the football calender, is there any other format to make it more competitive and interesting for the fans. Its easier to moan and complain about it without prompting ways to improve the format or scheduling of the games, maybe we all just have to shut up and deal with it. KTBFFH