FIFPro lash out at Gianni Infantino after Club World Cup

RTÉ News​

14-07-2025

FIFA and its president Gianni Infantino have been accused of acting "without dialogue, without sensitivity and without respect" for players in their staging of the Club World Cup.
The controversial 32-team tournament came to a close on Sunday with Chelsea causing an upset with a 3-0 win over European champions Paris St Germain.
Infantino has hailed the competition hosted in the United States as a success, but concerns have been raised around player welfare, with some matches being played in extreme heat and the tournament providing very limited time for players to rest before preparing for the new season.
Sergio Marchi, the president of world players' union FIFPro, accused FIFA of choosing to "continue increasing its income at the expense of the players' bodies and health", likened its approach to the 'bread and circuses' tactics used by Emperor Nero in ancient Rome and warned there could be no repeat of playing matches in such extreme heat at next summer's World Cup, which is being co-hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico.
"Despite the fact that the recent Club World Cup generated enthusiasm in many fans and allowed some of the main figures of world football to be seen in the same tournament, FIFPro cannot fail to point out, with absolute clarity, that this competition hides a dangerous disconnection with the true reality that most footballers in the world are going through," Marchi said in a statement.
"What was presented as a global football party was nothing more than a fiction staged by FIFA, promoted by its president, without dialogue, without sensitivity and without respect for those who sustain the game with their daily effort.
"A grandiloquent staging that inevitably recalls the 'bread and circuses' of Nero's Rome, entertainment for the masses while behind the scenes the inequality, precariousness and lack of protection of the true protagonists deepens.
"Most footballers on the planet do not receive their salary in full, they play only a few months a year, and they do so without minimum guarantees of stability, medical coverage or decent working conditions. This reality was completely ignored by FIFA, which chose to continue increasing its income at the expense of the players' bodies and health.
"The tournament also took place under unacceptable conditions, matches were played in extreme heat and with temperatures that put the physical integrity of the players at risk. This situation must not only be denounced, but must be firmly warned. What happened cannot be repeated under any circumstances at next year's FIFA World Cup."
No FIFPRO representatives were invited to a meeting held by FIFA on Saturday concerning player welfare, where a minimum three-week off-season break was agreed.
It is understood none of the union's officials were present and therefore the meeting is seen as a charade.
The Club World Cup's scheduling has been part of a wider, bitter legal dispute between unions and leagues on one hand and FIFA on the other. Unions and leagues insist FIFA has abused a dominant position by failing to adequately consult over football's international match calendar.
Marchi added: "We have been warning about the saturation of the calendar, the absence of physical and mental rest for the players, and the lack of dialogue on the part of FIFA.
"This way of organising tournaments, without listening to the federation that brings together the associations of professional footballers worldwide, is unilateral, authoritarian and is based solely on a logic of economic profitability, not human sustainability.
"You can't continue to play with the health of the players to feed a marketing machine. There is no possible spectacle if the voice of the protagonists is extinguished. FIFPro reiterates our commitment, we will firmly defend every right, denounce every abuse, and demand that FIFA adopt a truly inclusive policy, which respects the integrity of players and places them at the centre of every decision."