Why do we have international friendlies?

Wales v Mexico at the Cardiff City Stadium.  An international friendly crammed in between two important World Cup qualifiers and another match that has been placed into the middle of a season that has already been shortened due to the extension to last season caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are all fed up of hearing about “unprecedented times” but they are just that and now we have the position that Wales are playing Mexico in a game that frankly I don’t think anyone really cares about and within that I probably include most people in the Welsh squad as being within that camp.

We know that Robert Page will make changes today and the side that faces the Mexicans will look nothing like the side that played Belgium and equally nothing like the side which will line up at the same stadium against the Czech Republic on Tuesday evening.  Which in itself is one of the reasons why I just don’t see – or understand – why we need to have this particular fixture in the calendar.

Of course everyone appreciates that this season time on international duty has been a little restricted and the nations certainly lost plenty of international time last year which, of course, included the postponement of Euro 2020.   But what that doesn’t mean is that additional games should be added to the calendar.   I also appreciate that some teams are playing three qualifiers in this break but for those that are playing just two then use the additional time to work as a unit, to train as a unit and rest as much as you can some of the tired legs that will be impacting on each and every squad member at the moment.

It is no surprise at the moment that we are seeing plenty of niggling injuries in squads (both at club and international level) which are largely caused by not being able to rest sufficiently between games so questioning the logic of the agreement to this fixture is entirely valid.  And that is before the game is played, those questions will be louder and more frequent after the game if a couple of players are unnecessarily injured.

Thankfully Connor Roberts won’t feature in this game but we will have Ben Cabango and possibly Brandon Cooper involved after Ben missed out against Belgium and Brandon got a call up following injuries in midweek.   None of that though takes away the pointless spectacle of adding another fixture to what is already the most crammed fixture calendar that we have ever seen.

The next 20 months are going to test the fitness of many players to the absolute maximum.  After this season ends we have the European Championships, the World Cup qualifiers are still going strong and of course there is still the small matter of the Nations League finals as well as the play offs for the World Cup.    And that, of course, is a World Cup that will be played in November and December 2022 which means that the 2022/23 season will look considerably different to what we are used to seeing and will definitely mean a break in both Premier League and Championship action for a significant time mid season.

And that alone is a reason why international friendlies, possibly not just now, should be scrapped and kept to competitive games only.  Surely it is the only way?