Players ready to take legal action over packed schedules, says PFA chief executive
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Besides the likelihood of more injuries, the crammed football calendar is making it more difficult for players to perform at their best level.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON – The crammed football schedule nowadays may force players to take legal action, the chief executive officer of the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) Maheta Molango said, as he highlighted the growing concerns about player welfare.
Under the new format from the 2024-25 season, the Champions League group stage will expand to 36 teams from 32, playing in a single-league format. Each team will play a minimum of eight matches – instead of six – all against different opponents.
A host of English Premier League managers have been vocal about the busy schedule and its impact on players, and Molango shared the same sentiment.
“I feel like we’ve reached a stage where people are ready to take legal action, where people are ready to take tangible action on the pitch to try to resolve it, because it’s a sad state of affairs,” he told Sky News.
“Also, I think that it’s a defeat for football when the players need to take the justice in their own hands because they don’t feel protected.”
Besides the change in the Champions League format, Fifa’s revamped Club World Cup, planned for 2025 and set to feature 32 teams, will be played in between seasons from June 15 to July 13.
Currently, it is contested among only seven teams.
The dates give European teams who qualify little time to rest between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, with the World Cup in June-July 2026. A new Intercontinental Cup for clubs will also be played annually starting in 2024.
When asked if competition organisers risk killing football, Molango added: “I think that the players are ready now to take a strong stance.
“I do think that the authorities who are supposed to protect the players and protect the games are not doing that. They are generating more competitions, generating more income to the detriment of the players.”
He also said the current calendar makes it “physically, humanly impossible” for players to perform at their best level.
However, Fifa’s chief of global football development Arsene Wenger, a former Arsenal manager, defended the new Club World Cup format earlier in December by saying it will increase resources for smaller clubs around the world.
He said: “I accept that the football calendar is a busy one... But it’s important that we make football really global and this creates a chance for other clubs to progress, this is the real target.
“It will give more opportunities to more players all over the world to compete at the highest level.” REUTERS, AFP
