The issue of a congested calendar and its impact on player welfare has become an increasingly hot topic in world football in recent months.
A host of high-profile players have criticised authorities for overloading players and teams, including Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri, who discussed the topic and the potential for players to go on strike shortly before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
Next summer’s expanded Club World Cup which will take place in the USA and run until July 13 has been a specific source of debate, but ahead of a legal complaint from players’ union Fifpro being submitted, UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has moved to criticise players for speaking out.
UEFA chief hits out at players
Speaking at the European Clubs’ Association General Assembly in Athens, Ceferin took aim at players calling for a strike, arguing that their situation only applies to a tiny majority of players worldwide.
“We must recognise the match calendar has reached full capacity,” he said, as per the BBC. “Limits have been reached.
“At the same time the impact is very different among clubs and players. Some are over-burdened. The others have spare capacity.
“In fairness to those who are stretched, I stand by what I said two months ago, there is no room for additional matches. But I have to add this, who is complaining? The ones who have the highest salaries and the ones [clubs] with 25 top players. The ones with lower salaries and hardly 11 players are not complaining. They love to play.”
His comments were echoed by Bayern Munich chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen, who cast doubt on whether threatening strike action was the best way for players to address the issue.
“It is not right to threaten us with a strike from people who are on the top in terms of income,” he told the same conference. “There are a lot of other guys who don’t speak about that.
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“If we have a team like us, with 16 or 18 national team players, who travel all over the globe to different national team competitions, that means a lot of serious things on the travel time they need. For them it is definitely hard to do the work and we have to take care of their welfare.”
Rodri raised the issue last month when he was asked about the possibility of strike action, shortly before his season-ending injury.
“I think we are close to that…If it keeps this way, it will be a moment that we have no other option, but let’s see,” he said.
Real Madrid duo Dani Carvajal and Thibaut Courtois – both of whom have suffered serious knee injuries in the past 12 months – backed up what Rodri had to say, with both City and Madrid set to feature in the expanded Club World Cup next summer.
