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FIFA Wants European Leagues Cut to 18 Teams The world body thinks this is the best way to free up more dates inside the international calendar	By Ovidiu Panzariu, Sports Editor 8th of September 2006, 06:52 GMT Adjust text size:


The nowadays football players don't seem to have any time to rest. They play around 50-60 matches per season, plus international qualifiers for the World Cup or European Championship. And FIFA is taking a special interest in this matter. Not only that they are trying to ease up on the international calendar, but President Sepp Blatter also wants to cut all European leagues to 18 teams. For the moment, England, Spain and Italy all have 20 teams in the first division. That means at least 38 domestic games. If you add up the Domestic Cups, European matches and international qualifiers (WC/EC), you may get around 55 to 60 games. Of course, that only relates to big clubs in these 2 countries. Still, the European Professional Football Leagues (EPFL) does not agree with this point of view. Fewer games will mean less money from TV stations for the domestic leagues. The EPFL don't seem to care so much about international calendar, since the financial aspect is far more important that footballers' health. "FIFA has stated that an imposition for leagues to reduce to 18 clubs does not exist. It is rather an open discussion being considered by a FIFA task force within the context of a review of the international match calendar", said a statement from the EPFL. Sepp Blatter RECOMMENDED - in June this year - that all domestic leagues should be cut to 18 teams. Most of the countries in Europe already have that problem solved, since some of them have even fewer teams in their first league. This was one of the basic issues discussed during the World Cup by the football officials. All the matches at this year's tournament seemed exhausted from a long and difficult club campaign and the spectacle had to suffer from that. Most of the European leagues ended their domestic championship in the middle of June, only a few weeks before the World Cup.

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