Club World Cup 'showbiz circus' is no joke for squeezed Scottish game

Glasgow Times

7 hours ago

Yet, is this bizarre, ill-considered and vulgar international tournament, which prompted threats of strike action before a ball had been kicked and is now the subject of a legal action, cause for those involved in the game in this country to be concerned?
Fraser Wishart, the chief executive of players' union PFA Scotland, believes that it just might be.
Wishart has refused to watch a single minute of an event which has to date, among many lowlights, witnessed Bayern Munich hammer Auckland City 10-0 and Mamelodi Sundowns edge out Ulsan HD 1-0 in front of crowd of less than 4,000.
Read more:
'It is nothing more than a showbiz circus which has been designed to earn the biggest clubs on the planet even more money,' said the former Motherwell, St Mirren, Falkirk, Rangers, Hearts, Clydebank and Airdrieonians defender. 'That's all it is. I've not seen any of it and I think most football fans are exactly the same.'
He does not, though, need to have tuned in to Al Ahly against Inter Miami at the Hard Rock Stadium or caught highlights of the showdown between Pachuca and Red Bull Salzburg in Cincinnati to realise the staging of the FIFA Club World Cup from mid-June to mid-July is a worrying development for the game.
For Wishart, who is also a global board member of FIFPRO, the worldwide footballers' union, it is further evidence of the excessive, unrealistic and dangerous demands which are being placed on players by clubs, associations and governing bodies in the modern era.
He believes it is vital the 12 recommendations which are contained within the Minimum Player Workload Safeguards scientific study which FIFPRO published this month are embraced and adopted across the sport so that professionals are protected from the potentially devastating impact of calendar congestion and excessive workload.
'I suspect that a lot of people look at football at the highest level and think, 'These players are paid £200,000 a week, they should just get on with it',' he said. 'But the players are not at all happy.
(Image: SNS Group) 'They think their qualities are being affected and lessened. And they fear they are being put at risk of injury. Rodri, to give a high-profile example, genuinely believes that tiredness caused by being overplayed contributed to the ACL injury that he suffered back at the start of last season.
'International players were playing on June 10, 11 and 12. But end-of-season friendlies have always been played and have always been seen as being okay in football. The same goes with big summer tournaments like the European Championship and World Cup finals.
'The feeling was always that you play in the top tournaments every other year if you are a top player. But the following year you get a complete break. The problem now of course is that this Club World Cup has been put in place.'
Wishart continued, 'The bigger footballers' unions, the AIC in Italy, the UNFP in France and the PFA in England, have been getting a lot of complaints from their members about it. It's also been a high agenda item for FIFPRO and will continue to be.
'FIFPRO Europe filed a complaint against FIFA to the European Commission along with the European Leagues, who the SPFL are members of, and La Liga back in October. We believe there's a complete conflict between their positions as competition organisers and a regulatory body.
'They shouldn't be interfering in club competitions and adding to the games. It's a very complex area, but it's high, high on the agenda for FIFPRO. When do players get a proper break?
'There's going to be a reaction, a big reaction, after this tournament that is currently taking place. Players aren't happy. They're speaking to the big English, French and Italian unions and they're telling them they don't want to be there. I've been in the middle of all of these talks. People think it is just an issue for the top players, but it's having an impact on Scottish football as well, even in the lower leagues.'
Read more:
There was never any prospect of Celtic or Rangers being among the 12 UEFA teams who were invited to compete in the Club World Cup despite their achievements in the Champions League and Europa League last season.
Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan, Porto, Benfica, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Salzburg got the nod from FIFA.
So how on earth does this ersatz abomination affect the Glasgow giants never mind Cove Rangers, Greenock Morton and Edinburgh City going forward?
'There is a ridiculous proliferation of games at the highest level,' said Wishart. 'You have players who have played for their clubs all season, have then played two international games and are now playing in the Club World Cup.
'When that finishes, they will get a week or two off and then they will be back in training. Then next season they will have to deal with the increased schedule in UEFA competitions again. There are now eight midweeks during the league phases.
'When the knockout rounds start, the SPFL can't schedule games which clash with them because they aren't allowed to arrange domestic fixture cards against the European competitions. So the knock-on effect from that is that you lose the winter break.
'You need a 75 per cent consensus from the 70 medical and performance experts who contribute to get a recommendation in the study FIFPRO carried out. But all of these guys believe there should be a week-long winter break for everyone. So that is one thing that has affected Premiership players in Scotland.
'But the lower league players are also being affected by the lack of space in the calendar as well. The SPFL, without consultation with us or with the players, brought the League Cup forward and it now starts on July 12. There is a lot of pressure to do well in the cup as well. That is a big earner for many clubs.
(Image: Mike Egerton) 'So that means the players are back in training a month earlier and aren't getting a break. How do you get a holiday if your children are at school? How do you get a holiday if your partner works? How do you get any proper time off?
'That's another aspect of it. People think it's just the top players, but it's having a real squeeze on domestic football at a lower level. Domestic football has got to adapt. For example, there are no Scottish Cup replays now and that was a source of income to some clubs. That is a potential payday that's gone.
'Unfortunately, players are getting squeezed more and more and more. It's the case even if you're a part-time player. You're training three nights a week sometimes, you're playing at the weekend, you're not getting a break at Christmas because you've got to be training and playing. Then you stop your season and three or four weeks later you're back for pre-season training again. It's not good.'
Read more:
Wishart and his FIFPRO colleagues are concerned that an already packed fixture list is only going to become more difficult to negotiate.
'I know for a fact there have been murmurings at European level about whether clubs can play Champions League ties on a Saturday,' he said. 'But that would mean moving our league games to Wednesday. That would have an impact on Scottish football as well, would filter back.
'There have been suggestions that there should be a maximum number of league games across all European countries. But if that was set at 30 if would mean that our clubs would lose four home games and all the income that comes from that. All of these things are floating about in the background.
'I'm sure if you asked our bigger clubs they would want more European ties and fewer league games. They're not fussed about the proliferation of European ties. But if you ask the lower half of the top flight and clubs below that they would say, 'No, we need to keep this number of games'.
'It's really important people realise the threats from the top to the bottom of the game here by this continual expansion by all the governing bodies. In this case it's FIFA. They're the regulatory body and they're now putting their foot into domestic club competitions.'
The FIFPRO report puts forward a dozen commonsense proposals. It states that every player must have a guaranteed four week break in the close season. It also advises that footballers should train for a minimum of four weeks in pre-season before returning to competitive action. A mandatory week-long mid-season break is also demanded.
(Image: Adam Davy/PA Wire) There were many more suggestions which did not receive the necessary approval but received significant backing. One of them was that players should only play two games a week for a maximum of three weeks. But are these sensible precautions being taken in Scotland?
Callum McGregor, who has topped the 'Indestructible Rankings' which are released by the CIES Football Observatory every year in the past and amassed more competitive minutes than any other footballer in the world game, played in no fewer than 16 matches in the seven weeks between late November and mid January last season.
Wishart was unsurprised when the Celtic captain and midfielder retired from international football at the age of just 31 following the Euro 2024 finals in Germany last summer.
'Only Callum will know whether the demands on him by club and country played a part in his decision,' he said. 'But I would imagine they would have. Callum isn't the only Scottish-based player who has featured prominently in that list, James Tavernier, Joe Aribo and Kieran Tierney have all appeared on it in the past.
Read more:
'I can remember Vincent Company talking about the number of games and number of midweeks he had to play when he was at Manchester City and was on the FIFA player council. He said, 'Listen, if City want to have 80 games a season that's fine, but the number of games I play should be limited to 50'.
'He felt if clubs wanted to earn £100m extra playing in the Club World Cup then they should have bigger squads. He felt there should be players who can step in to take his place during the extra 30 games.
'You can't just keep playing players. You can't keep playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday, travelling to European ties and then travelling to international games. You can be away for five to 10 days when you are with your national team.
'In this country we have lads from South America, Japan, wherever, who are flying halfway across the world to play a football match and then are coming back two or three days later. All of these things take a physical and a mental toll.
'When the World Cup was played in Qatar in November and December in 2022, the domestic season had to be extended. The Euro 2024 qualifier against Georgia at Hampden that was played in torrential rain took place in late June the following year. The home-based Scotland players were playing after their team mates had started pre-season training that night.
'I know people think, 'Oh, footballers are earning a fortune, they're lucky'. That is true to a degree. Some of them at the highest level earn a lot of money and anyone who plays professional football is lucky. But it doesn't mean you're immune to the normalities of life, to tiredness from overwork, to wanting to spend time with their family, to needing to go on a holiday with your kids.'
Wishart added, 'If there is to be no winter break, the clubs are going to have to look at giving players individual breaks. You might have to say, 'Right, we've got a home game coming up, we'll let the first-choice goalie have a week's holiday, or a fortnight's holiday and we'll play the reserve keeper'.
'We're going to have to do something about it, because it just can't continue the way it is. There are far too many games now. Having five substitutes now helps. But sometimes it's good to take a person out.'
Philippe Clement, the former Rangers manager, was ridiculed by many in Scottish football during his time in charge at Ibrox for admitting that his team selections had been influenced by sports science recommendations. But Wishart would like to see the wellbeing of a footballer prioritised more often than is currently the case.
'It's a good thing that sports scientists and staff on the medical side are looking after a player's welfare because the manager just wants to get the player out in the park,' he said.
'The FIFPRO report recommends that a player who has been diagnosed with an injury shouldn't be able to play until he or she is cleared to do so by a medical professional. It takes the decision away from a manager who is under real pressure and who is thinking, 'I need you to play because if we lose we're in real trouble or I'm in real trouble'.
'There's all sorts of stories about players playing through injuries. But if they do that they don't clear up and it makes it worse in the long term. In general, I'm quite comfortable with medical professionals having a say in when a player can play.'
(Image: Paul Devlin - SNS Group) The lack of young players who make the successful step up from the youth ranks to the first team at Premiership clubs is a source of concern in Scottish football and hopes are high the Cooperation System which has been rolled out this month will help to address that issue.
But Wishart was stunned to see that Barcelona and Spain winger Lamine Yamal had played in 128 games before turning 18 and feels that clubs and associations should be wary of asking too much of gifted youngsters too soon in their physical development.
'More than 75 per cent of these experts thought there should be specific workload safeguards for under-18s and more research done on whether there should be specific workload safeguards for under- 21s,' he said.
'In Scotland, hardly any under-21 players get games. But Lennon Miller has played a lot of games at a good level at a young age. He's a big strong lad. But is that going to affect him long-term? I don't know. But that was one of the findings in the study which stood out for me. We need to take a more in-depth look at that. It is something to think about.'
There is much for football, for governing bodies, for national associations, for clubs, to ponder as seasons get longer and the demands on players at all levels of the game increase.