Too Much Football: Why Players are Considering Strikes.

Too Much Football: Why Players are Considering Strikes.

The new Champions League format started this week and the news off the pitch has been focused on the football calendar and the sheer amount of games the modern footballer has to play these days. Players such as Rodri and Jules Koundé came out in their pre-match press conferences, slamming the current state of the football calendar and making the point that players need to protect their bodies to preserve the longevity of their careers. So with additional games in the Champions League campaign and the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup taking place in summer 2025, is it almost inevitable that players will strike against playing this amount of games?

Let's have a look at the changes to the football calendar this season. In the new Champions League format, teams have two extra games in the "league phase" and this will be the same across all European competitions. For English clubs, the Champions League will be played in a staggered schedule in conjunction with the League Cup, meaning that clubs playing in Europe will be playing every 3 days for a few months depending on their progress in each competition. In terms of the FIFA Club World Cup, the tournament will comprise of 32 teams from every football confederation and will take place from the 15th June to 13th July. The format of this competition will be the same as the FIFA World Cup, with team playing a maximum of 7 games if they reach the final. The Club World Cup is clearly a money grab by FIFA, in my opinion, and I think that it may result in many players pulling out to preserve their bodies ahead of a new season. There will truly be no chance for an off-season for those competing in this new competition, which could affect the quality of performances.

At the start of last season, Raphael Varane hit out against the FA for the amount of additional time being played in Premier League matches. This adaptation was taken from the 2022 World Cup in an effort to give fans the best possible product by adding back the time that the ball wasn't in play. In my opinion, it was not a good idea and it kind of took an element of jeopardy away from league matches as teams would acknowledge that they have more time to save or win a match than they had previously. Varane stated that these rules were "damaging our game" and believed that players' concerns were "not being heard". Players and managers had concerns over the increasing intensity of the football calendar and by adding even more additional time at the end of matches, the FA would be putting immense strain on the players' mental and physical wellbeing. Even though the additional time adaptation has been ditched so far this season, it seems as though UEFA and FIFA have not yet acknowledged player and manager concerns about the football calendar.

We often hear about a player's red zone and it is thought that the limit for the amount of games played in a season should be between 50 and 60 matches, depending on age. The modern football calendar is relentless, especially for the top sides, who could be playing up to 70 games with the new FIFA Club World Cup starting at the end of this season. Players are not getting enough rest between games and even in the off season, where it seems that they will likely only get 1 summer off out of 4 if the current scheduling persists. Top players like Rodri, Jules Koundé and Alisson have used this week's pre-match press conferences to highlight this issue in the media in an effort to put pressure on football's governing bodies to re-evaluate the football schedule and take into account the human side of the argument. The point has also been made by prominent pundits such as Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher this week, further backing up the point of re-evaluating the schedule. Players will keep picking up injuries which would also dilute the quality at the top of the football pyramid which can also have the undesired effect of making the product less watchable. So there is a lot for the governing bodies to consider on this issue! Is it inevitable that footballers will unionise and strike against the schedule? I think we will be finding out in the near future!

Talk Soon!