7 reasons the International Champions Cup should be thrown down a well and left there

Injury risk

The ICC has managed to include specific clauses stipulating the presence of specific players on the field during this summer charade. This factor supersedes all gradual and individualized training programs designed to build up fitness over time. It also reduces the much-needed offseason by a few weeks, leaving players with little time to recover mentally and physically.

We may not see the effects of these games on superstar players right away, but in reality each player has only so many games in their legs. As much as we’d like to believe otherwise, even the top players in the game are still humans in the flesh and bone. At some point, muscles and ligaments will start to erode and break down, increasing the risk of serious injury.  We may not see a torn ACL in July at CenturyLink Field but it’s likely that a contrived rivalry game played in the middle of summer will contribute to such an injury later in the season.

Add in the impact of travel across time zones, and the mental fatigue factor and it all starts to add up. If you’d rather not fall for fake soccer and you’d rather watch a Manchester derby with all the star players at full strength, you have to believe that minimizing the risk of injury is a good thing. Adding more games to a plate already chockfull of action does the opposite of that, bringing along unnecessary risks in the interest of corporate greed and sponsorship money.