FIFPro study calls for mandatory four-week off-season break for all players

New York Times

2 days ago

The biggest players' union in football is calling for the introduction of a mandatory four-week off-season break to safeguard against excessive workloads at the elite level.
Ahead of FIFA's Club World Cup beginning in the U.S. this weekend — a revamped competition that has increased the strain on an already congested calendar — FIFPro has published the results of a new independent study of 70 performance and medical experts that advocates greater protections to its members.
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Twelve recommendations have been put forward, including a minimum four-week rest period between seasons and a further four-week period of retraining before a new season begins.
It is also proposed that a mid-season break of at least one clear week is also guaranteed, as well as specific workload safeguards being introduced for those under the age of 18, such as Barcelona and Spain prodigy Lamine Yamal.
FIFPro says the study 'represents the most extensive expert consensus to date', with all of those taking part anonymously either employed by a football club or national team. Over 75 per cent agreement was required from the pool of experts to establish each of the final recommendations.
'This study presents safety standards based on the considered and independent opinions of medical and performance experts working in professional football who understand the mental and physical strain placed on players,' Dr. Vincent Gouttebarge, FIFPro medical director, said in the organisation's statement. 'If we can all agree that health comes first, then we should take steps to implement these safeguards.'
FIFPro, which represents more than 65,000 professional players in men's and women's football, has long pushed for tighter limits on workloads in an age of expanded competitions.
This season brought an additional two group games in UEFA's Champions League and Europa League, while it will end with FIFA's new Club World Cup, a tournament involving 32 teams over a 29-day period. Next summer will also see the World Cup — played across the United States, Canada and Mexico — increase to a 64-team event.
The four-week rest period and four-week pre-season supported by FIFPro is common for the majority of players in Europe's top leagues, but a major tournament summer, including the Club World Cup, makes it increasingly impractical for those with additional commitments.
FIFA's Club World Cup will run until the final on July 13, less than five weeks before the Premier League and La Liga begin their 2025-26 seasons on the weekend of August 16-17. Last summer, players who featured in UEFA's European Championship typically had a three-week summer before embarking on a shortened pre-season.
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FIFPro's study also advocates greater consideration of travel burdens in scheduling, mandatory rest each week, and 'specific' workload safeguards for under-18s. There is also a belief that there should be a mid-season break, something the Premier League removed last season in favour of a longer summer.
FIFPro Europe has already drawn battlelines against FIFA during the past 12 months as it attempts to force change.
As well as supporting a legal case brought by the English Professional Footballers' Association and its French and Italian counterparts at the Brussels Court of Commerce last June, FIFPro then joined forces with Europe's major leagues to file a separate legal complaint against FIFA with the European Commission in October. Both were designed to challenge what it claimed was FIFA's ability to 'unilaterally' set the international match calendar.
FIFA has consistently maintained that its own competitions are not the problem and that any fixture congestion stems primarily from club competitions staged domestically and in Europe.
'Let us be clear: the FIFA Club World Cup is not responsible for calendar congestion,' said a FIFA spokesperson. 'It is a competitive tournament that takes place once every four years with a maximum of seven matches only for the two teams who reach the final.
'As independent studies have verified, FIFA is only responsible for a small percentage of matches per season. More precisely, less than 1 per cent as far as clubs are concerned.'
Two of the extreme workload cases that prompted this latest scientific study are those of Julian Alvarez and Bruno Fernandes. Here, we look at their examples in more detail.
When FIFPro furrows its brow at the increasing demands placed upon players, Alvarez is the poster boy for concerns.
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The forward, who will spearhead Atletico Madrid's attack at the Club World Cup, has effectively not stopped playing since the summer of 2023.
An extraordinary schedule saw him play a full season with Manchester City in 2023-24, before then being part of Argentina's squads at both the Copa America and the Paris Olympics.
FIFPro's most recent workload report found Alvarez was included in 83 matchday squads last season, with 75 appearances made for club and country. The last of those in Paris was followed by an £82million ($111m) move to Atletico and a subsequent debut 17 days later.
Another 64 appearances have already been made this season following Argentina's 1-1 draw with Colombia on Tuesday, a World Cup qualifier that precedes what could be an extended spell in the U.S. for the Club World Cup, where as many as seven more games could be played. Only then will the 25-year-old get a break, with the La Liga season beginning again on August 17.
'The players' ability to rest and recover is increasingly diminished, which in turn could impact their long-term career longevity,' said FIFPro's report. Alvarez has seldom been afforded that luxury of rest.
Portugal's victory over Spain in the Nations League final on Sunday finally wrapped up Fernandes' season almost 10 months after it began with Manchester United's Community Shield defeat by Manchester City.
That demanding schedule included 66 appearances for club and country, a figure that would have been higher without suspensions picked up in the first half of the season. It also overlooks United's post-season tour of Malaysia and Hong Kong last month that immediately preceded his latest international commitments.
Long cup runs, both domestically and in Europe, have added to Fernandes' workload since joining United from Sporting CP in 2020 and he now stands clear of the pack for minutes played at an elite level.
According to data from Opta, Fernandes has played 17 more club games than any other player in Europe's big five leagues since the start of the 2020-21 season.
In that same timeframe, the 30-year-old has played 22,823 minutes of football, which is 1,247 (almost 14 whole games) more than the next busiest, Real Sociedad's goalkeeper Alex Remiro.
Fernandes has played 329 games for club and country in the past five seasons, making the rest he will enjoy over the next month a rarity.
(Top photos: Getty Images)