The Premier League has steadily cultivated a reputation for slow reaction times when it comes to matters of importance.
When it came to finding a solution for the issue of late returnees from South American ties, Spanish authorities (specifically a government body – the National Sports council) reacted and postponed a handful of top-flight fixtures to compensate, as reported by Marca.
Real Madrid v Ath. Bilbao 🅿️
Granada v Atl. Madrid 🅿️Both games postponed because of players returning late from South American teams ❌ pic.twitter.com/VXCUdb2Cpg
— GOAL News (@GoalNews) October 13, 2021
By contrast, the English top-flight was once again found wanting and completely lacking a suitable remedy.
To be fair to the Premier League, La Liga have proved to be similarly undependable in the matter, though it does raise questions as to why we couldn’t have taken a similar approach and delayed games to allow sides the full use of their squads.
With Alisson Becker and Fabinho potentially set to be sidelined due to the lack of a break between Brazil’s meeting with Uruguay and Liverpool’s weekend clash with Watford, we’re losing out on key members of the starting-XI.
Clubs shouldn’t be put in a position where they’re being forced to lump out six figures for private transportation only to have a slim chance of potentially being able to field their first-choice players upon the return of domestic football.
To be fair to the suits at the FA, they are generally pretty busy searching out troughs to dip their snouts into.