For football greed, vanity and narcissism, there's no beating pointless friendlies | Jonathan Liew

Even during a second wave of Covid-19 and its inherent dangers, football is gripped by an abusive self-addiction

England’s game against Iceland could be played in Albania because of a mutated strain of coronavirus found in Danish mink farms. There you are: a perfectly normal English sentence.

As a result a number of Premier League players, including Andreas Christensen and Kasper Schmeichel, pulled out of the Denmark squad for the international break, because of government regulations that would have required them to quarantine for two weeks on their return.

Related: Why is football so blind to the injuries caused by a remorseless schedule? | Jonathan Wilson

Related: Women footballers left in dark during Covid pandemic, survey reveals

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