Imagine you being a highly paid surgeon for a top hospital. Now imagine you choose to, just through pride, to help out your vet friend and end up injuring your hand, rendering you useless for your actual employer.
Think the hospital executives would be more than a little miffed? And probably rightly so.
However, in the world of international sports, although my analogy perhaps isn't the most watertight of comparisons, this happens with a scary frequency.
Now, I'm one of the biggest fans of international football there is, especially the World Cup, which normally takes my already certifiable sports madness to new heights.
Still, I am feeling more and more for the teams that actually pay huge transfer fees and sometimes even higher salaries for top athletes, only to have them go away to play a bunch of former Soviet minions only to come back on a stretcher.
The most recent round of World Cup qualifiers saw Liverpool's Fernando Torres carried of with a thigh injury after 16 mins in Spain's game against Belgium, Manchester City's Bulgarian midfielder Martin Petrov tearing his ACL in his country's WC qualifier against Georgia and City's recent last minute acquisition Robinho strain his thigh in Brazil's qualifier against Colombia.
Now, players will always want to play for their country (with a few notable exceptions), but sooner or later a huge lawsuit will be filed against a national football federation from a team losing its top star for the season, or god forbid career. Only after more than a year of negotiations did the English FA agree to reimburse Newcastle for Michael Owen's season ending injury during the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
I suspect that international qualifiers are now one of the most dreaded times of the year for club managers, as their own futures can in cases completely rely on their stars making it back from their international duties unscathed.
No comments:
Post a Comment