Spanish Football Federation takes aim at Chelsea and Jose Mourinho

Jose Mourinho has spent most of the last month criticizing the Spanish national team's handling of Diego Costa, and given that the player was out of action for most of the past month with injury and illness, it doesn't seem all that unreasonable. Mourinho was quite vocal about wanting Costa left out of the current Spain squad, and the Spanish Football Federation is apparently worried that Mourinho might be putting pressure on the players to avoid international duty.

On Thursday, AS is reporting that the RFEF will now be requesting additional information from clubs before releasing players from international duty:

Spain’s Football Federation (RFEF) will now demand a medical report from injury-hit international players before they can be formally granted medical leave to be excused from being called up. The RFEF has also requested backing from UEFA and FIFA to ensure that clubs do not put pressure on their players who have been called for international duty. This appears to apply especially in the case of Chelsea manager José Mourinho.

Frankly, I hate international football being played during the club season anyway, and my first step toward fixing the issues between club and country would be to simply move the entire international calendar to the summer, and to do away with friendlies entirely. FIFA would never go for that though, as FIFA are generally an awful organization. At the very least though, players with even the slightest hint of injury should be  treated with as much care as possible, which is the exact opposite of what the Spanish Football Federation seem to be pushing for.

As national teams don't pay wages or massive transfer fees, the RFEF should really be focusing on helping clubs keep their multi-million Euro investments healthy and on the pitch, as opposed to ensuring those players are forced to participate in meaningless games during an already too crowded season. Logic, though...