The leap year may have brought an extra day to the calendar but it sure has not given an increase to the number of games in the sports world. The UEFA, Europe’s football governing association as well as some of the clubs in Europe have come together to decide that they will cut down on the number of International matches every year from now on.

European clubs and the UEFA to finalize deal regarding international matches

There is a new deal that has been made in consideration with the international matches that are to be played every year. Though the deal still needs to be approved by FIFA, the clauses seem to all have been decided just not agreed upon yet. ECA seems to be happy though that the soccer stars will travel less abroad and play more games within the country. This comes especially from Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson. He was the one who raised the issue. He said that “meaningless” games need to be cut out as the players’ calenders are already jammed packed and they need to spend more time practicing and less time traveling.

The FIFA meeting is to take place on March 5th to decide whether the deal will be passed through or not. The agreement includes 201 clubs throughout the calendar year. The European clubs seem to have a little bit of a clash with FIFA’s approach to the deal however. Both seem to have their versions of the deal that they want to pass.

“It is not our will to go against Fifa. “But our request for transparency and democracy has to be accepted.” This was said by the ECA chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

This one will be an issue that Sepp Blatter will have to solve out, keeping both the sides happy. Rummenigge did however say that he was unhappy with the way Sepp Blatter was approaching the issue.

“While an agreement has been reached with Uefa, the situation remains unsatisfactory in relation to Fifa. Unfortunately discussions with the FIFA president have failed to lead to a satisfactory outcome which takes account of the clubs’ demands.”

FIFA, in response to Rummenigge’s statements have said that he, along with ECA were all invited to attend a meeting to sort the matter out but were not present for it and to hear such remarks after their absenteeism from the meeting was uncalled for.

The tug of war of the deal, seems like it, will stop only after March 5th.

Tags: Clubs, ECA, FIFA, Manchester United, Sepp Blatter, Sir Alex Ferguson, UEFA