I agree. Someone has suggested that we return to August bank holiday fixtures which is a good idea. I know there are arguments regarding other events taking place on bank holidays but I think this is an option that needs to be looked at.
another idea that might be worth considering is if you’re going to have blank weekends in September and October, maybe play two of the pizza cup group games on those days to at least provide us with some Saturday football
Agreed. I think clubs like ours should be bidding for a League rule for no international postponements in Divisions 3 & 4. Both the revenue and marketing opportunities we, and clubs like ours, lose by having these moved from Saturdays to midweek are really significant.
It's irritating to have it done to us by the opposition for home games (on that, if we're going to keep the facility to postpone, I think the away side should have to fund the difference between Saturday and Tuesday revenues), but also feels neglectful of the Wanderers fan base when we do it ourselves. I wonder whether the Trust reps on the club board lobby against it, given how many fans it adversely impacts.
I agree, the impact on the match of these call ups is nowhere near the impact on fans, why is it we seem so quick to postpone as if it's a privilege we can now get at when in reality we are postponing games against poor performing teams who are affected worse than we are and costing ourselves tens of thousands of pounds as the Tuesdays are poorly attended by comparison.
Joe Low would be a loss but he could also miss any single game due to suspension or injury and we'd have to cope.
Or change the criteria for what counts as an international. Be it on appearances, cutting out U21s or possibly more controversial limiting it to a certain world ranking. (Guyana are currently 165th for example).
I wonder what a jolly to somewhere far flung is like for a young kid who might not actually have grown up there but it's a bit of a slippery slope trying to make a ruling on who is and isn't entitled to do so and penalising poor performing countries won't help their development.
Sounds like Cheltenham have a better shout for postponing than we do in this case. Perhaps the internationals could be midweek but they're not likely to work round us.
The fact is the quality of League One has gone up markedly in recent years. That means more players are going to get called up by their countries - which is a good thing - and the EFL need to get with the times and build breaks into the calendar. I don't think League Two is that far off justifying likewise, to be honest.
Slight tangent but linked to a conversation on here the other week: another factor in the increase in players being eligible for multiple nations is the sons of former pros coming through - a lot of the time, they were born abroad wherever there dad was playing. See Haaland being eligible for England (well, he was 😑).
I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on the opportunity for someone to represent their country, but unless the fixture list starts accounting for these breaks, I think we should just live with it in Leagues one and two.
I'm not sure I hope for any sort of change, not a change based around supporter needs at any rate! But I'd favor either not scheduling L1 fixtures during the international break, or requiring that a player has appeared in a certain number of games before his absence is counted. I'm not sure either TJ or Phillips should count towards our number, for example.
we have a stadium on the edge of a town half a mile down the end of an industrial estate.
we have a system that now pushes Saturday games to mid week games because of international call ups. This reduces the number of people who can attend
at the same time, the local bus company withdraws its match day, bus service making travel to the ground, difficult on Saturdays and well-nigh impossible on weekdays for certain sections of the supporter base
oh, let’s factor in the high ticket prices during a cost of living crisis
How about playing the trophy at weekends on international weekends and saying clubs can’t postpone for international call-ups. At least then we’d have something to watch on a Saturday.
Thats not what he meant. The fixture list for all League 1 & 2 teams have fixtures arranged for the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, why not have one arranged for the 2nd round as well?
Comments
That may be true ultimately - but the decision here was taken by Wycombe.
Glad I didn't get a ST, midweeks never as fun.
IMO, the games should go ahead - clubs' fault for signing internationals if they have players out.
Far too many international games nowadays in any case, they should be a special occasion, not ten a penny.
Presumably none of them strikers…
Some explanation https://twitter.com/mattcecil87/status/1707389659939045577
Again, high time League One had international breaks built into the calendar
I agree. Someone has suggested that we return to August bank holiday fixtures which is a good idea. I know there are arguments regarding other events taking place on bank holidays but I think this is an option that needs to be looked at.
another idea that might be worth considering is if you’re going to have blank weekends in September and October, maybe play two of the pizza cup group games on those days to at least provide us with some Saturday football
If correct, the fact this lot have got five internationals shows what a farce this situation has become.
Would be interesting to know how many are U21s, and how many of them actually feature regularly for Cheltenham.
Agreed. I think clubs like ours should be bidding for a League rule for no international postponements in Divisions 3 & 4. Both the revenue and marketing opportunities we, and clubs like ours, lose by having these moved from Saturdays to midweek are really significant.
It's irritating to have it done to us by the opposition for home games (on that, if we're going to keep the facility to postpone, I think the away side should have to fund the difference between Saturday and Tuesday revenues), but also feels neglectful of the Wanderers fan base when we do it ourselves. I wonder whether the Trust reps on the club board lobby against it, given how many fans it adversely impacts.
I agree, the impact on the match of these call ups is nowhere near the impact on fans, why is it we seem so quick to postpone as if it's a privilege we can now get at when in reality we are postponing games against poor performing teams who are affected worse than we are and costing ourselves tens of thousands of pounds as the Tuesdays are poorly attended by comparison.
Joe Low would be a loss but he could also miss any single game due to suspension or injury and we'd have to cope.
Luke Southwood - goalkeeper - 9 league starts (ever-present) - Northern Ireland
Owen Bevan (on loan from AFC Bournemouth) - centre-back - 3 league starts - Wales under-21
Cameron Peupion (on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion) - midfielder - 0 league starts - Australia under-23
Elliot Bonds - midfielder - 5 league starts - Guyana
Oliver Hammond (on loan from Nottingham Forest) - midfielder - 3 league starts - Wales under-21
They've got to take 1 of 2 approaches.
Simply extend the international break to league 1
Or change the criteria for what counts as an international. Be it on appearances, cutting out U21s or possibly more controversial limiting it to a certain world ranking. (Guyana are currently 165th for example).
Or League One clubs don’t release players as they don’t have an international break. This I wound not like to see.
Being involved in an international break creates its own problems as League One teams already play 4/5 games more than Championship clubs.
I wonder what a jolly to somewhere far flung is like for a young kid who might not actually have grown up there but it's a bit of a slippery slope trying to make a ruling on who is and isn't entitled to do so and penalising poor performing countries won't help their development.
Sounds like Cheltenham have a better shout for postponing than we do in this case. Perhaps the internationals could be midweek but they're not likely to work round us.
Getting rid of the B-team trophy would help a lot
The fact is the quality of League One has gone up markedly in recent years. That means more players are going to get called up by their countries - which is a good thing - and the EFL need to get with the times and build breaks into the calendar. I don't think League Two is that far off justifying likewise, to be honest.
Slight tangent but linked to a conversation on here the other week: another factor in the increase in players being eligible for multiple nations is the sons of former pros coming through - a lot of the time, they were born abroad wherever there dad was playing. See Haaland being eligible for England (well, he was 😑).
I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out on the opportunity for someone to represent their country, but unless the fixture list starts accounting for these breaks, I think we should just live with it in Leagues one and two.
I'm not sure I hope for any sort of change, not a change based around supporter needs at any rate! But I'd favor either not scheduling L1 fixtures during the international break, or requiring that a player has appeared in a certain number of games before his absence is counted. I'm not sure either TJ or Phillips should count towards our number, for example.
so to sum up:
we have a stadium on the edge of a town half a mile down the end of an industrial estate.
we have a system that now pushes Saturday games to mid week games because of international call ups. This reduces the number of people who can attend
at the same time, the local bus company withdraws its match day, bus service making travel to the ground, difficult on Saturdays and well-nigh impossible on weekdays for certain sections of the supporter base
oh, let’s factor in the high ticket prices during a cost of living crisis
ever feel you’re not wanted?
How about playing the trophy at weekends on international weekends and saying clubs can’t postpone for international call-ups. At least then we’d have something to watch on a Saturday.
Thats not what he meant. The fixture list for all League 1 & 2 teams have fixtures arranged for the 3rd Round of the FA Cup, why not have one arranged for the 2nd round as well?
Because at least 50% of those teams will be in the second round