UEFA Forum
NATIONAL COACHES- ANXIOUS TO RIVAL
UEFA CHAMPIONS - LEAGUE TEAM-WORK
Making full use of the mid-September gap in the
international fixture list, national team coaches
from all over Europe met in Copenhagen for the
second UEFA National Team Coaches
Convention with the idea of exchanging their
views on EURO 96 and making recommenda
tions for the future.
The only n otable absentees were Dusan Uhrin,
distracted by the Czech Republic's World Cup
qualifier against Malta, and Aimé Jacquet, rushed
into a French hospital with a kidney complaint.
The coaches unanimously felt that the atmosphe
re at the EURO 96 finals in England had proved
that national teams generate just as much popu
lar passion as the UEFA Champions League,
which they acknowledge as the continent's pre
mier competition at club level. Yet they expressed
concern that lack of preparation time is giving
national teams less chance to give the fans the
sort of intense, spectacular football which UEFA
Champions League fans are accustomed to.
Italy's coach, Arrigo Sacchi, summed up the
general feeling by saying that even the sides he coached in Serie C had more times spent on
preparation than the national side he took to England. The coaches regard a serious team-buil
ding process as the key to future development and are asking for time to do it. Flowever, the
coaches, many of them club coaches before taking over their national team, insist that the last
thing they need - indeed, the last thing football needs - is the sort of club vs country conflicts
which are arising all too frequently within the European game. Hence their readiness to adopt a
new formula which could take a great deal of pressure off the international fixture list. They wel
come the idea of doubling-up international matches, as proposed by Michael Laudrup in a UEFA
newsletter a year ago. Players would report for national team duty on the Monday, after playing
in the weekend's league fixtures. The national coach would have the whole week to prepare his
side for one international fixture during the following weekend and would then keep them
together for a second fixture on the following Wednesday.
The advantage would be substantial. National coaches would have ten days for team-building
and would be able to work with the squad after matches. There would be time to review the
weekend match and correct mistakes before the second game. As all European club football
would be called off during the previous weekend, coaches and clubs would no longer have to
argue about the release of players.
For the clubs, the benefit is that league action would not have to stop on the weekend before
every international fixture. Whereas the current system means that a qualifying programme of,
say, ten matches would entail ten blank weekends. The new system could reduce that to five.
For the fans, the proposal can only be good news. It gives national team coaches and club
coaches optimal chances of preparing teams able to paly top-class football both at internation
al level and in the big club competitions especially the UEFA Champions League.
15
Rinus Michels, vice-chairman of UEFA's
Committee for Technical Development,
presents the EURO 96 Champion Coach
Award to Germany's Berti Vogts at the
National Coaches Convention in
Copenhagen.
PHOTO: PER KJAERBEY
