World Cup
FIFPro has threatened to take matters “into its own hands” if FIFA does not address the “emergency” issue of player welfare.
Earlier this month, FIFA defended its scheduling of the inaugural Club World Cup in 2025, which will take place in the United States between June 15 and July 13.
Global players’ union FIFPro and the World Leagues Association (WLA) threatened to take legal action unless those dates are changed.
FIFPro Europe president David Terrier has called on football’s governing body to place a limit on the number of games amid an increasingly congested global calendar.
“We are faced with one of the most urgent problems with our sport, which has risen through a failure of government,” Terrier said at a FIFPro event in London on Thursday.
Terrier claimed FIFA’s insistence on “more matches, more competitions, more money” has led to “dangerous mental and physical fatigue” among its member players.
“FIFA doesn’t listen as a body,” he added. “Their decisions affect all of the ecosystem, but they make unilateral decisions and it is a failure of governance and we can no longer accept it.
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“It is only by listening to the players that we will have a timetable that will be okay for everyone, it is only under those circumstances we will have guarantees like seasonal breaks and matches playing one after the other.
“If FIFA doesn’t listen we will take things into our own hands, we won’t exclude any kind of possibility whatsoever.”
Premier League CEO Richard Masters, who was also in attendance, said football is facing “one of the most urgent problems of our sport” and accused FIFA of “a failure of government.
“The problem is real,” said Masters. “We’re starting to see the impact of decisions made by regional and international bodies. The calendar is getting less harmonious with every decision that is being made.”
Chair of the FIFPro high performance advisory network Darren Burgess — formerly fitness coach at Arsenal and Liverpool — used the example of Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham to illustrate the increasing demands placed on young players in particular.
The 20-year-old midfielder has played over 18,000 minutes of football in his career to date, vastly more than fives times more than David Beckham (3,929) at the same age.
In response, FIFA president Gianni Infantino said: “FIFA is organising around 1% of the games of the top clubs in the world. 98-99% of the matches are organised by the different leagues, associations, confederations.”
“Our mission is to organise events and competitions, and to develop football around the world because 70% of the Member Associations of FIFA would have no football without the resources coming directly from FIFA.”
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(Photo by Mateo Villalba/Getty Images)
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Callum Davis is a deputy news editor for The Athletic, based in London. Prior to joining, he was senior editor at TNT Sports, having previously worked at The Telegraph. Follow Callum on Twitter @Callum_davis89
