For years now, players at top clubs have complained about the absurd match congestion that they need to go through. The most popular example is Manchester City’s Rodri, who played nearly every available minute in the last few seasons and very loudly voiced his complaints multiple times before suffering an ACL injury.
In general, most agree that the schedule for top clubs is ludicrous and want to put pressure on the governing bodies of football, UEFA and FIFA, to decrease the amount of games these players need to play.
However, former Bayern Munich president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who left the UEFA executive committee in the February of 2024, sees it differently. He claims that players need to look in the mirror to figure out why clubs are looking to play more games: “I find it very interesting that players in England complain, where they have the luxury of a League Cup and a league with 20 teams. I understand this discussion. But the players and their agents have maneuvered themselves into this trap. By demanding ever more and ever higher salaries, they are forcing the clubs to generate ever higher revenues,” the former Inter Milan player claims, as captured by @iMiaSanMia. “And how does this revenue come from? Through more games. And that is why I say: we should sit down with all those involved and discuss without emotion what mechanisms we need to bring back the more serious and rational times – including in terms of business.”
It is certainly an interesting discussion. Certainly, if viewed at a different angle, the player’s push to reduce the amount of games could be seen as an attempt to justify putting in less work for the same amount of/even more money. But the schedule is also leading to more and more injuries.
Certainly, Rummenigge’s final verdict rings true: Sitting down with all involved and discussing the situation will solve more problems than both sides complaining about the other. Perhaps the players will accept lower wages for less games? Perhaps a different compromise can be found? Regardless, things are reaching a breaking point and without any intelligent, meaningful discussion, nothing will get better.
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