Football Australia hope their “good will” and communication with English clubs throughout the season will allow them to call up players earlier than FIFA’s mandatory World Cup release period.
The European Club Association (ECA) has ordered clubs not to release their players before July 10, just ten days before the start of the tournament – citing concerns over player welfare.
But in an exclusive interview with Mail Sport, chief executive James Johnson said they hope to get the club’s permission to call their players to camp earlier so they can maintain their fitness ahead of the tournament.
“FIFA is negotiating with the European Club Association and through this agreement they are setting mandatory release periods throughout the year,” explains Johnson.
“The challenge is outside of that legal framework, there’s a lot of room.” Our approach has been to make sure we work closely with clubs.
Football Australia chief executive James Johnson is confident English clubs will allow the Matildas to call up players for the World Cup ahead of FIFA’s mandatory release period
The Women’s World Cup begins on July 20 in Australia and New Zealand
“We didn’t play Sam Kerr against Scotland in the last window because she would play too much club football, so we said to the club, ‘We’re only going to play her against England because we’re trying to limit the game.’ Protocol.’
“We tried that good will between the national team and the club with all our players and their respective clubs.
“I think it’s necessary because at the end of the day we have the same goal.” We want what’s best for the player.
“There will be times when we need to step back and give the players a break, like we did with Sam in the last window, and there will be times when we need to ask the club if the player needs them .” Can we sign the player a bit early to play 90 minutes of a game to make sure he’s fit?
“We are talking to our clubs about bringing players in early, although the sacking phase starts later.”
“Actually, it’s about the welfare of the players, because what we don’t want is that players come into camp unfit and then go from 0 to 100 miles per hour.” That’s where we worry about injuries.
“For us it’s all about keeping the players active and not training too hard – we just want to make sure they are functioning well and fit for the World Cup.”
Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw has been heavily critical of ECA’s plans and predicted a spate of violations if the mandatory redundancy notice is enforced.
Republic of Ireland manager Vera Pauw has been heavily critical of ECA’s plans and predicted a spate of violations if the mandatory redundancy notice is enforced
“If we did that and followed the ECA idea, you could put an ambulance next to the pitch for any ACLs that are going to happen,” Pauw said.
“That’s 11 weeks without football, then 10 hours of jet lag in Australia and see what happens.”
Johnson agrees that the period between the end of the season and the mandatory player release date is too long and would likely do more harm than good.
“There will be a six-week gap between when the players have to attend national team camp and the end of the season.” I think there has to be some logic and reasonableness and when we say words like ‘player welfare’ , we must breathe life into this concept.
“Even though every situation is specific, I just don’t understand how it’s actually good for the players to take a six-week break after a tough season and then go into pre-season for 10 or 15 days before a big World Cup.”
“There has to be some give and take between national associations and clubs and in our case we tried to do just that.”
There is intense debate about the women’s game schedule given the number of cruciate ligament injuries among top-flight players, which many believe is partly due to the increased stress of extra games and less rest time.
Football Australia has taken steps to address this issue including hiring performance director Paddy Steinfort.
Johnson is confident Sam Kerr and fellow England player Matildas can join World Cup camp before July 10, just ten days before the tournament begins
Johnson said people like Kerr and Mary Fowler (above) played too much football
“The men’s international match calendar is an extremely tense conversation. “It’s like a monopoly board,” says Johnson.
“Whether you’re a club or a league, an association or a confederation, you’re all trying to get more ownership because ultimately that means more commercial revenue.”
“As women’s football becomes more commercial, that means the competition or content owners are putting out more content, which means the players have to play more.”
“We’ve closed the so-called performance gap in Australia.” We looked at what our challenges were in both the men’s and women’s games.
“With the women, we learned that there was a core of about eight players who played disproportionately many minutes and more than their bodies could handle.”
“They were also at a point in their careers where their bodies couldn’t handle it anymore and we weren’t training enough young players.”
“We brought in a performance director to help us solve this problem and our solution was to have a strict schedule, so play against top opponents, bleed a lot of younger players to get more minutes of play so we could do that squad.” We also wanted to rest some of our players who played too much football.
“Last June we made what I thought was a brave decision to give our older players a break and we played Spain in Spain.”
“We lost hard, we lost 7-0.” We were criticized at the time, but the reason was that we wanted to give younger players some experience.
“We’ve got players like Charli Grant who were outstanding in that game and showed she can really compete at this level and is now a starting player, but also players like Sam Kerr, Alanna Kennedy, Hayley Raso and Mary Fowler who it was.” Playing too much football, resting.
England lost Chelsea star Fran Kirby to a knee injury earlier this month
The Lionesses have already been without Leah Williamson, who suffered a cruciate ligament injury
“We think that helped them in the year leading up to the Women’s World Cup where we see other nations suffering a lot of other injuries because the players didn’t have a break.”
There is a chance that the Matildas will meet England in the round of 16 if one is the group winners and the other is runners-up.
“We’re very aware of the different development opportunities of the groups,” laughs Johnson when asked if this was factored into his deliberations.
“On the one hand, it would be very exciting to meet in the round of 16, but it would be even better if we could meet later in the tournament.
“From the perspective of the competition organiser, the longer the Matildas stay in – it’s important for bringing Australia with them – the better for the competition, but the longer the bigger nations like England stay in.”
Johnson is confident that Matildas boss Tony Gustavsson has built a team capable of reaching the final stages of the World Cup
“If this game can be played later in the tournament, like the semi-finals, I would be very happy!”
The Matildas have won seven of their last eight games, including a win over the Lionesses, and there is clearly a sense of confidence that Tony Gustavsson has built a team capable of reaching the final stages of the World Cup.
“I think this team is as prepared as possible for this tournament,” said Johnson.
“Does that mean we’re going to win it? This is not our expectation, this is our hope. “We have done everything to prepare them as well as possible.”
