Calls for footballers to have their say on shaping the international match calendar are ramping up once again, this time at the World Football Summit Europe 2024 in Seville, Spain.
The leading industry event, which took place on 18-19 September, came just days after several high-profile players – including Alisson Becker, Manuel Akanji, Rodri, Jules Kounde and Thibaut Courtois to name but a few – voiced their concerns on the dangerous workload levels elite men’s players are currently enduring.
Former footballers Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher also discussed yesterday on CBS how current players are “being treated like cattle”.
The expansion of the UEFA Champions League this season adds two extra games before the knockout stage and, coupled with the introduction of a 32-team Club World Cup from 15 June-13 July, is eating into players’ rest time as the cannibalisation of the calendar by governing bodies is increasing.
"Players are talking about it everywhere: at press conferences ahead of the Champions League, ahead of the Nations League. It’s clear to see something has shifted," said Alexander Bielefeld, FIFPRO’s Director of Global Policy & Strategic Relations for Men’s Football, speaking at a panel at the World Football Summit.
"Player unions have been working on this issue for more than five years. We have raised and communicated the players’ concerns on this to FIFA. When unions in countries like England, France, Italy and other markets visit the players every pre-season and talk to the national team players, the number one concern is workload.
"The players need protected rest periods and a limit on matches so they can perform at their peak and protect their careers. It’s as simple as that."
Bielefeld was joined on the World Football Summit panel with Jerome Perlemuter (World Leagues Association General Secretary), Alberto Colombo (European Leagues Deputy General Secretary), and Lorena Torres (High-Performance Specialist and FIFPRO HPAN member).
The consensus among unions, players and leagues is clear: the match calendar is broken. "Constantly adding international matches and competitions has broken the calendar," said Perlemuter. "We only have 365 days in a year, which means very simply that if you keep adding matches, at some point there is no more space – national leagues cannot organise their competitions properly anymore and players pay for it with injuries."
Colombo said: "The decisions on the international match calendar are made by FIFA in an unilateral way. Its decision-making process is far from being a collective one, with no involvement of those organising domestic competitions and those actually competing on the pitch – the players.
"We reached a point where dialogue was no longer existing, which is now why it’s being brought towards the attention of the courts."
Legal claim
European Leagues and FIFPRO Europe in July announced that they will jointly file a formal complaint to the European Commission on competition law grounds against FIFA regarding the international match calendar.
The joint formal complaint came a month after FIFPRO Europe member unions submitted a legal claim against FIFA, challenging the legality of FIFA's decisions to unilaterally set the international match calendar and, in particular, the decision to create and schedule the Club World Cup.
"Where there is no discussion, no process, and self-preferencing from a governing body, no one can deny there is a legal issue. We have tried to resolve it; now, unfortunately our members are forced to take legal action," said Perlemuter.
Colombo said: "It's a collective responsibility – the players, leagues, national associations, governing bodies and, of course, the fans. And the fans’ position on this is quite clear: we don't want more matches, we want better matches."
How is the current calendar affecting players?
Earlier this month, FIFPRO published a report that underlines player concerns over excessive workload and a lack of player care by football governing bodies.
The report, prepared with Football Benchmark, reveals 54 percent of 1,500 players monitored faced excessive or high workload demands, with a significant number exceeding the recommended limits by medical experts. Specifically, almost a third (31 percent) of players were included in matchday squads for 55 or more games, while one in six (17 percent) made over 55 appearances.
The report also shows how international competitions significantly contribute to time pressure on players. It can be downloaded in full HERE.
Lorena Torres, a high-performance expert and a member of FIFPRO’s High-Performance Advisory Network, gave a player-centric view of workload at the World Football Summit.
Torres said: "How do we make these decisions that protect the footballers that play the most? That's the main concern. Players want to play – I don't know of any elite professional players who don’t want to play – so if we allow them to be part of all these competitions, those that are competitive and want to play in every game, is that really sustainable for them?"
2023/24 Men's Player Workload Monitoring Report
The report highlights the burden on men's players involved in multiple international tournaments that endangers their welfare, performance and career prospects.
As well as the volume of matches, players also need safeguards for travel. Some players, such as Cristian Romero, covered over 162,000 kilometres of international travel alone during the 2023/24 season, including many journeys across multiple time zones, highlighting the demands of international competitions that are often overlooked by organisers.
"To play two matches for your national team in the window means the player is with the national team for 10 plus days," Bielefeld points out. "To say it's just two percent of the total matches is a simplification of the reality that exists in the calendar.
"We need a collective agreement between the different competition organisers, and players and leagues are a very important part in that equation. We need to map out clearly how we divide the time, how we divide competitions, so that they don't eat into each other and that they don't kill each other."
