Yesterday, Tottenham Hotspur hosted its second fan forum, where invited and lottery-selected fans were able to hear from and ask questions to chairman Daniel Levy, plus Spurs board members and players. You’ll likely hear a lot about this fan forum from various corners of the fanbase, especially online, and the reactions aren’t always good. The questions were almost certainly pre-vetted, as were the fans selected to ask questions, so this wasn’t a hard-hitting public grilling like the one desired by certain purple-and-gold clad members of the fanbase.
But it is interesting, even if it’s a sanitized version of a sports Q&A. But one of the more interesting answers came from Levy himself, when asked about the fixture calendar and concerns from both fans and players over the increasingly untenable number of games professional footballers are encouraged to play in a season. Levy announced that he’s actually in favor of a calendar reduction to reduce the pressure on players, desiring “less games” in favor of “higher quality” matches, and said he shared the concern, especially for players like Cuti Romero and Son Heung-Min who have to travel halfway across the globe to play in international fixtures.
“I agree there’s too many games. But the problem we have, the particular problem in England is we have an extra cup competition compared to the rest of Europe.
“And in Europe, the most important fixtures for the big teams is European competitions, whereas here we have the Premier League which is the hardest league in the world, yet we still want to do well in Europe. So it’s a particular problem for the English teams and I do think it’s a problem.
“The friendlies for the international tournaments is another problem, particularly for someone like Sonny [Spurs captain Heung-min Son] who has to travel so far for his country. I think it’s a FIFA issue that’s going to have to be compromised with UEFA but I do have a lot of sympathy for the players.
“As a club, we would like to see less games but higher-quality games. So if that means we have to see some changes in some of our competitions, then so be it. I think in the end that’s in the long-term interest of the players.”
That sounds pretty good to me. It’s a reasonable view and on one level shows that Levy is not a callous football executive who cares only about maximizing profit. But if you’re a cynic, you can also interpret Levy’s comments to mean that “fewer, but higher quality” matches also could mean a future increase in ticket prices for a smaller number of games, much like what we’ve seen in American sports leagues like the NFL.
I’m not here to tell you how you should feel or whether you should take Levy’s comments at face value or not. My job is not to tell you how to fan or whether you should be #LevyIn or #LevyOut, although most of you can probably intuit my personal view by now if you’ve been reading the site for a while.
But what is clear is that the fixture calendar is at a saturation point, and is probably past it. The number of matches top level players are expected to participate in has only gone up — the revamping and expansion of European competitions like Champions and Europa League has added fixtures to the calendar, and there are increasing international demands through additional friendlies and made-up competitions like the Nations League. Combine that with major tournaments like the Euros and World Cups every two years and players simply don’t get as much of a break, if they get one at all. It’s untenable.
So I welcome Levy’s comments, even if there isn’t a whole lot he can do on his own. It will take a concerted effort, either via Premier League clubs, an edict from the FA or UEFA, or (last resort) collective action from players, i.e. some sort of walkout or strike. We’ll see if any of that happens, but SOMETHING needs to because there are simply too many games in the football calendar right now.