Lazio boss Maurizio Sarri never backs away from speaking about the ills of modern-day football and he believes that if the sport is seen as a business, there will be nothing left in ten years from now.
The Biancocelesti boss was speaking to the press ahead of Lazio’s Serie A game against Monza and he gave his views about how players are playing too many games these days and this is reducing the quality of football. He stated that the current football schedule is not feasible for the sport and he is glad when his players don’t make it to the internaitonal break.
Sarri stated: “If football is treated only as a business, in ten years there will be nothing left. There are more interesting shows on TV.
“I only watched the Kosovo-Andorra game for 10 minutes, just because I was looking at the channels and I saw 22 players all in the box. The schedule is insane, and I’ve heard about the insanity of boosting matches. There are 5-6 absentees due to injury for every national team match.”
The Italian further stated: “When my players aren’t called up I’m happy, because they can rest. National teams are crazy. Vecino went from Italy, Japan, South Korea and Italy to play two friendlies. By now, it is clear that this is no longer feasible.
“The league is no longer feasible, I have heard comparisons with the NBA, it is madness. There, the players are on the field for 28 minutes, in football 90, and in football they take many more blows than in the NBA”.
The last few months have seen Sarri become very expressive about the direction in which the sport is heading into and he has been quite vocal about the reduction in quality because of a higher number of games.
His Lazio side are second in the Serie A table currently and have a big chance of qualifying for the Champions League. His future remains uncertain, amidst talk of a declining relationship with sporting director Igli Tare.
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Kaustubh Pandey | GIFN
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