Further changes to elite soccer could be made with players needing to cope with even more games, and Jamie Carragher has called for it to be stopped due to injuries and welfare
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The Premier League schedule could be impacted further in 2025, and former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has labeled the situation a 'joke' as the health of players isn't being considered.
To accommodate FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup in the future, the Africa Cup of Nations could be moved forward which would impact Liverpool's Mohamed Salah. The tournament which usually takes place every two years typically kicks off in February, but could be brought forward to December.
The change would leave Premier League teams shorthanded during its hectic festive schedule, and it could lead to a major rule change. Clubs are only obligated to release players for one international finals tournament each year, but that could be increased to two.
Carragher is not keen on the changes and vented his frustration on social media. "The amount of football we ask the top players to play is beyond a joke," Carragher posted on X. "The quality drops & more importantly the injuries rise. @FIFPRO will have more battles on their hands with @UEFA @FIFAcom going forward."
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Liverpool may only have Salah who is impacted by this, after previously housing fellow African players such as Sadio Mane and Naby Keita. Defender Joel Matip is Cameroonian, but following a coaching dispute, he no longer represents his national team.
African players will be unaffected during the 2024-25 season as the tournament isn't until the following year, but 25-26 could be brutal. With the season starting in August, African players will then jet off for AFCON in December before returning to Premier League action.
Then, when the season ends in May/June, there will be a brief pause until the 2026 World Cup, hosted in the United States, Mexico, and Canada. There will be little to no turnaround for elite players before preparations for the 2026-27 season begin.
While this is only an issue for the elite African players, and also the strain on the rest of the squad facing a period of absence without teammates, it's part of a wider issue. Liverpool's former coach, Jurgen Klopp, moaned about the amount of games elite players participated in during his nine-year term with the club.
Manchester City head coach and Klopp's Premier League nemesis, Pep Guardiola, even agreed. "At the moment there is an imbalance between the number of players you have in a squad, the competitions you have to play, and the big gap between the breaks the boys usually would need, and what they get," Klopp said back in 2019.
"If you are an international player and play in all the big competitions in the world then you have two weeks off per year. That is a fact." Klopp and Guardiola didn't often agree, despite the mutual respect, but even the City coach sided with the German. "I completely agree with Jurgen on this kind of statement about 'too much'," Guardiola said.
