UEFA pledge to national teams

By Pete Sanderson in Stockholm

Precautions
The high-quality football seen at UEFA EURO 2004™ in Portugal provided firm evidence that national team football remains a key part of the game despite the rise in popularity of club football. Moreover, in discussions at the sixth UEFA Conference for European National Team Coaches in the Swedish capital, delegates spoke of the need to take further precautions to guarantee that national teams and players are given better protection and have more time to recover ahead of major international tournaments.

Round table
One idea which many of the national coaches from UEFA's 52 member associations would like to see implemented would be a round table between club and national coaches to help discuss the various problems which top coaches face such as the international football calendar and the release of players ahead of friendlies.

'Protect teams'
"We want to do as much as we possibly can to protect the national teams," said UEFA technical director Andy Roxburgh as the conference concluded after three days of talks. "Everybody wants to see the star players performing at their highest level for their national team at the major championships but sometimes this is very hard to achieve because these players have just finished a long, hard season with their club.

Preparation time
"During the [2002 FIFA] World Cup and EURO 2004™ some of the stars did appear to suffer because they perhaps did not have enough time to recover," Roxburgh added. "We want to do our best to help national team coaches get the best out of their players and one way of doing this would be to give them more preparation time between the end of the season and the start of a major tournament. We are acutely aware of the commercial problems which this may entail but feel confident that if we can get the top national and club coaches together for discussions then it may help improve the situation."

Looking ahead
The final day of the conference began with a look at the future of national teams headed by former France and Liverpool FC coach Gérard Houllier and former Germany assistant coach Holger Osieck, both members of the technical study group at EURO 2004™.

Final thoughts
Then it was the turn of the technical directors and head coaches, including Greece's Otto Rehhagel and Luiz Felipe Scolari of Portugal, to give their final thoughts on the future before Roxburgh closed the conference. "It has been a very worthwhile exercise," said Roxburgh. "Some great ideas have been raised and there has been a great exchange of dialogue between the coaches."