Team Sports and the 20metre rule

I believe that the maximum distance a multi sprint sport athlete needs to run in one direction during conditioning training should be limited to 20metres. Think about it for a while and try it as I have tried to follow my 20metre rule for the majority of the training year. In the analysis of soccer we can see that it is rare a player runs more than 20etres in one direction so I ask why should we do anything differently in training. we want to move away from players cruising during the game and move towards attacking the space at pace. Interested in your thoughts