It's super stupid to have all these international/qualifier matches interrupting the domestic leagues in general, I don't know anyone who likes them
And all this while a lot of players are complaining with too many matches, too few time to rest in summer break etc. Footballers are super spoiled imo, but they have a point, since they have to play more and more matches every year, which also increases the risk of injuries. But as we all know, it's about money. Domestic leagues want to make money, domestic football associations, UEFA, FIFA, TV stations etc. as well. So the more matches, the better
What I would like to see, but what will never happen, is to get rid of qualifying matches for EC/WC for the majority of teams. For example Euro 2021 features 24 teams - just take the UEFA rankings and the best 12 or 16 teams are qualified automatically, they will qualify anyway. The rest of the teams can play a little 3-week tournament the summer before the event and fill the remaining places.
That way the top players, who also play EL/CL, will have their summer completely free every two years and can rest properly. This would also shorten the domestic leagues and/or put some more room to breathe for the scheduling. And you would still find 2-3 weeks before or after season to have some kind of national team training camp with some friendlies for the teams that usually are pre-qualified by ranking.
Well, Qualifiers games still should be played because we still don't know all participants of EURO 202
01. But I really don't understand purpose of friendly games right now when calendar is such intensive already. I doubt UEFA get big revenue from TV rights of friendly games, national federations now basically can't get money from ticket sales. Nations League also can be delayed to later time because basically it's just friendly games without big importance.
Maybe it's not bad idea, but IMO these FIFA or UEFA rankings is a bit shitty and not accurate thing to determine strongest teams. It's possible to build ranking simply by playing lot of friendly games with weak teams from Oceania or Asia. Also, if such format would be made, fans in small countries would lose chance to see biggest stars playing in their stadium. So, it would be difficult to reach consensus with all federations.
Sometimes I just don't understand why countries Spain, Portugal, Germany are using their main squads even against minor countries and risking to get their stars injured playing against lumberjacks. Using U21 squad would be enough to win comfortable.