Professional footballers set to take LEGAL action against FIFA for ‘humanly impossible’ calendar

A professional footballer may now have to play up to 86 games in a season!

Professional footballers set to take LEGAL action against FIFA for ‘humanly impossible’ calendar

The Footballers' Union is set to take legal action against FIFA (Via X/@CentreGoals)

The European football calendar keeps on expanding, with more and more games being added to the list. With the proposed new format of the Champions League in addition to club games and international tournaments, professional footballers have ‘had it’ with FIFA and other regulatory bodies. As it stands, a male professional footballer may be required to play up to 86 matches in a regular season!

UEFA recently revised the Champions League format, scrapping the existing group stage format and bringing in a ‘league’ system. This automatically adds 64 more games to the competition. Each team will be required to play 2 more group-stage games as a result. To add to the burden on players, a new summer competition for National teams is also being planned by FIFA.

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Authorities are making decisions without contemplating players' welfare. They are only focused on generating more income, which is detrimental to the players.
Maheta Molango said as reported by The Sun

The footballers’ union is now threatening to take legal action against the proposed calendar.

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Subsequently, they have pointed out that such a schedule will lead to player burnout and injury. Maheta Molango, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association said that people are ‘ready’ to action.

“I get really angry” – Jurgen Klopp slams hectic calendar and fixture overload

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has never been one to shy away from voicing his laments. The German has always been cynical of the overload of professional footballers, especially his players. He has also pointed out the extremely limited time available to recover after European games. He drew similarities between the schedule and climate change.

Jurgen Klopp
Jurgen Klopp (Via X/@eurofootcom)

Klopp’s side went through a very challenging patch of games against Manchester United, West Ham United, Arsenal and Burnley. The 4 games were spread over the space of just 9 days. However, Liverpool managed to pick up 8 points from an available 12.

The period we're in is one where everyone has to find a way through. There are no shortcuts or easy ways to do this. I'm not from England but I've been here long enough to know how it is here.
Jurgen Klopp said.

Klopp also complained that the people in charge of making the ‘decisions’ do not ‘feel’ football. He also bemoaned the mid-day kick-offs and called for better decisions in this regard. Despite all the negative comments made by Klopp, his side are top of the league and have a game in hand to second place Aston Villa.

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