Manchester United chief executive David Gill has revealed that top clubs in Europe want the number of internationals reduced to six per year.
Speaking after the European Clubs' Association's (ECA) annual meeting in Switzerland, Gill said it would be perfect if national teams played just over a handful of times in years where there are no tournaments.
"In an ideal world, we've been talking about six double dates over the two-year period," Gill said.
"It's a reduction but still gives the right balance to the requirements of the national teams and what the clubs want."
And ECA chairman Karl-Heinz Rumenigge, who doubles as Bayern Munich chief executive, confirmed Gill's thoughts and said it was 'nonsense' that clubs always had to lend their players for meaningless fixtures.
"We have to come back in favour of quality not quantity," he said.
"When I played in the European Championships in the 1980s there were eight teams, now it is 16 and in 2016 it will be 24.
"The World Cup is similar, from 16 teams to 32 now.
"Everything in the international calendar is balanced in favour of national teams.
"[Qualifying groups] used to have groups of four, now it is six or seven. It has to be stopped that we release players for nonsense dates."
