Having been named as vice chairman of the European Clubs’ Association last month, Celtic chair Peter Lawwell has become the latest to add his voice to the growing number of managers, and clubs, that are now demanding that the football authorities start prioritising the welfare of players given the ever increasing schedule of games to be played.
The increased pressure on domestic European fixtures has never been higher given the increase in international matches, and the Nations League idea as FIFA continues to attempt to monetize every single aspect of the game it can, and every football fan now knows how often clubs have to pause for an international break, and it is not going to get any easier in the future. And for those fans still looking at Celtic vs Aberdeen stats, players’ holiday time is going to be further impacted when the World Cup Finals expand to a 48 team competition in the 2026 edition.
Then following on from the bizarre first winter World Cup, the plans to split the 2030 edition across two hemispheres, three continents and multiple countries is only going to cause further disruption. Confirmation of the key dates were announced last Friday, and we now know the final is scheduled for the week beginning July 21st, which is a week later than is usual, and less than three weeks before the Community Shield is expected to be held.
“It seems to me we have pushed it that bit too far, particularly with the new World Cup and the restart dates. Between now and then we must come up with a process that covers everything in terms of player welfare, time on the pitch and time in training.”
It is believed that the UK and Republic of Ireland will be announced as joint hosts of the 2028 European Championships at some point today (Tuesday), and that tournament itself was expanded from 16 teams to 24 countries back in 2016. By the time this tournament rolls around, FIFA will have replaced the Confederations Cup with the new 32 team Club World Cup, and that will also run every four years.
Fans should also remember that from next season onwards, the formats of the Champions League and Europa League will also be changing, which means each qualifying club will now be playing eight first phase games, as opposed to the current six.
“We have probably more than maxed out. It has got to a situation where it is impossible to expect high-quality performances from elite athletes over so many games in a year. Something has to be done.”
Calls for an end to the constant tournament expansion have been growing in recent years, and some managers are talking of a game cap for each player (where their club is prioritised over international games) but ECA chief executive, Charlie Marshall, feels there is an easier fix than a cap, it just requires clubs and national teams to start working in lock step.
“How you manage player health and safety is going to come down to more sophisticated collaboration. We have to move away from the traditional interaction between national teams and clubs, which is that the players go away and you don’t know anything about what happens until they come back. We want to encourage much more trust, collaboration, science and objectivity when it comes to the management of player injury, so that sensible rotation of players, in the interests of either side, actually becomes a possibility. We want to see coaches look more sophisticatedly at squad rotation, particularly maybe in some of the less important games to try and achieve something that makes the calendar we are faced with a bit more healthy.”
At some point, you would think the clubs will ultimately end up banding together to force change on a European and international front, as neither FIFA, nor UEFA, look likely to dial back their own searches for greater revenue.
With Lawwell speaking out, it will be interesting to see if he offers further comments in the near future about how he sees the increasing schedule effecting Celtic more directly, as right now, most of the complaints come from the big English Premier League sides.
