(Reuters) – According to the chief executive officer Maheta Molango of the Professional Footballers’ Association, the congested soccer schedule might lead players to take legal action due to concerns about player welfare.
The Champions League group stage is set to expand to 36 teams from 32, playing in a single-league format starting from the 2024-25 season. Each team will play a minimum of eight matches, all against different opponents.
Several Premier League managers have expressed their concerns about the busy schedule and its impact on players.
Molango told Sky News, “I feel like we’ve reached a stage where people are ready to take legal action, where people are ready to take tangible action on the pitch to try to resolve it, because it’s a sad state of affairs.”
“I think it’s a defeat for football when the players need to take the justice in their own hands because they don’t feel protected,” he added.
The revamped Club World Cup by FIFA, planned for 2025 and set to feature 32 teams, will be played from June 15 to July 13, while a new Intercontinental Cup will be played annually starting next year.
The dates of the Club World Cup give European teams who qualify little time to rest between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons.
When asked if competition organisers risk killing football, Molango said, “I think that the players are ready now to take a strong stance.”
“I do think that the authorities who are supposed to protect the players and protect the games are not doing that. They are generating more competitions, generating more income to the detriment of the players,” he added.
He also mentioned that the current calendar makes it “physically, humanly impossible” for the players to perform at their best level.
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim Coghill)
