LogFAQs > #979508543

If the players don't want to play internationals they can simply refuse. They're there because they want to be.

I don't really care about friendlies but international tournaments get way more viewers, and people globally care more about them (especially for the World Cup, but even the average Euros game outstrips the average weekly viewing of all ten Premier League games - roughly 100m per Euros game, 80m per Prem gameweek). While I kinda dislike that breaks are so frequent (it's moreso in early season that I feel disrupts the flow), they need to play the qualifiers at some point. No space for them to be played in May, that makes it basically impossible for fans to make arrangements for major tournaments or teams to prepare. And international tournaments themselves are typically far less soulless than the Prem or CL. I loved Swansea being in the Premier League and Europe but it was nothing compared to watching Wales make the Euros semis.

I agree that extra fixtures (particularly the League Cup) should probably go, in the English system. The big clubs are so far ahead of others in terms of depth and finances these days that it's not even like we get interesting underdog stories anymore, and most fans of those teams don't care anyway, so may as well chop it.