On the impact of national team tournaments on European professional football leagues

The coexistence of international and domestic competitions in world football presents interesting trade-offs and potential conflicts that deserve some attention. In particular, the practice of national teams participating in international competitions drawing on players from league clubs may generate impacts on club competitions, which are deprived of their elite players. Of course, the absence of talented players for a significant number of games is a cost presumably anticipated by clubs, but nevertheless one that could affect season planning, game strategies, and perhaps other competition issues. In any case, the overlap of national and club competitions is nowadays a relevant matter for professional football (Murphy, 2000) and an evaluation of the impacts (if any) this type of international competitions may have on professional football leagues can contribute to the debate on this issue between different football governing bodies. Even though the role of scheduling in tournament settings has been discussed in different types of contest, as far as I know, apart from Longley (2012) and Cairney et al. (2015) - both focusing on hockey - there is almost a complete absence of any literature that examines the effects of competitions overlapping in the case of football.