Football / Soccer / Calcio / Futebol / Fußball

They should but they also want more and more money. And to generate the income there are more and more matches. You can't get both

Legitimately curious, is there a footballers union? Do they have any actual recourse into forcing leagues and/or FA's to lessen the games being forced upon them?

Yeah and they likely see lower team games as crucial for getting career stats. If they only play against bigger teams, their individual stats will drop off.

Ridiculous that a kid who earned a $10m/year contract based on <100 matches in his career complains about the number of matches being played.

These guys play football, get the life of luxury, free cars, villas, adoration of millions, and yet all you hear is about too many matches.

You don't even have to go far deep to see how delusional this is. Ask any League 1, 2, etc. player about this and they'd laugh you out of the room for the simple fact that this problem exists for 0.5% of the players, all of whom are multimillionaires.

And yet, somehow, people feel sorry for them.

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Kind of odd how basketball has the exact opposite problem, which I imagine comes from the fact that the regular season doesn't really matter to them

The back-to-back appearance percentages for the players profiled in the report is pretty alarming so I hope they can figure out a viable solution.

imagine a player's strike

Very mind blowing!

In the report, there is a wow visual of Jude's minutes (club & country) at age 20 v other players at age 20, but here is the data:

• 829 Beckham
• 2,853 Gerrard
• 3,477 Lampard
• 9,187 Owen
• 10,989 Rooney
• 14,445 Jude

“If they die, they die” - FIFA

I mean, youre a player dog. Do and say something.

The FIFPRO report is a very well research report I highly recommend!

2023 FIFPRO Extreme Calendar Congestion: Adverse Effects on Player Health & Wellbeing Report

Key findings/takeaways:

• While the risks of injury and deteriorating performance are widely known, the report also illustrates dangers to career longevity, mental health, and personal lives.
• Today’s elite young players like Vinicius Jr have played up to double previous generation.
• Football stakeholders have disregarded health safeguards in favour of competition expansion to generate more revenue. eg expanded Club World Cup & Champions League, which could increase number of games by 11% for top players.
• FIFPRO seeks mandatory season breaks, limit on back-to-back games to protect players, and the minimisation of international travel.

The clubs & fans are negatively impacted also:

• The report also analyses the cost of injuries to clubs, broadcasters, and fans because of the large number of players missing matches in the ‘big five’ leagues this {22/23} season.

Minutes for current U25 vs previous generations:

• Vinicius Jr has at age 22 already played 18,876 minutes club and national team football, more than twice as much as former Brazil playmaker Ronaldinho at the same age.
• Spain’s Pedri had at the age of 20 played more than 12,000 minutes, 25 percent more minutes than Xavi at the same age.
• France’s Kylian Mbappe has at age 24 played 26,952 minutes, 48 percent more minutes than Thierry Henry at the same age.
• Jude Bellingham will have played more than 30 percent more minutes of competitive football by his 20th birthday later this month than Wayne Rooney, at the same age.

adding - I hope more players better leverage FIFPRO data/services to organize, speak & act on the player welfare challenges.

Lots of these lads won't have a career by the time they are 30, not only the modern game is much more demanding but the amount of matches is absurd. Good luck going against it tho, money speaks.

i mean, saying "someone should do something" isnt exactly the same as actually doing something.

If clubs and leagues wont do anything about it I think the next step is players will start putting a 50 game limit into contract negotiations

Trade places with you any day bud

I believe so and I know they've done things to benefit players in the past but this particular problem hasn't been addressed iirc.

How many more?

Cos it doesn't seem like there is in general.

The CL adds games next year and the Euros might have added a game too. I guess the CWC but that's not gonna be many games (would have been 2 in a year and now it will be every 4) and for a limited number of teams.

Where are you getting extra games from?

UEFA and FIFA only care about money, but they are completely devaluing their product. Euros or WC meant something more special 20 years ago and brands paid accordingly. Now you have basically a summer tournament every year. 60 plus games between teams and NT and you are looking a squad rotation that makes some games be like NBA games in January where players are coasting. Don't see how this is a good business model other than for a quick profit for those in charge.

Sure but he's the exception not the norm. Look at ibra, buffon etc.

WC is adding one more game only

Modric. Kroos. Ronaldo. Messi. Dani Alves. Zanetti. Pirlo. Dzeko. Don't make me go through them all. It's rare an elite athlete is retired at 32 so yes hazard is the exception not the norm.

Lol it’s how I run my career mode. Somehow I still get a couple of injuries a year. Game hates me.

Yeah but not by much, it would be interesting to see the averages though.

Is a player who finished 10the in the Prem in 2008 and in 2023 really playing a ton more a games?

Even in the top 4, unless you go crazy like United and City did last season, did the games go up by a significant amount?

Do you have any actual data to back it up or just a vague notion?

Even taking into account the drive to increase revenue, the club & country organizations do not seem all that concerned w the welfare of their most valuable assets, their players .

I'm all for player welfare but there's an easy solution. Lower your wages and the clubs won't need as many matches to make money.

Unlike north american sports, footy hugely overspends on player wages. So owners need to make as many matches as possible.

I bet the players wouldn't accept a salary cap along with a match cap.

Get rid of the pointless domestic cups which hardly pay anything and just risk top flight players against 2nd div teams.

I know!!

Obviously we play Tchouaméni matches

teehee

They are so competitive so to me that adds to the complexity of the issue & possible solutions/options.

It’s hilarious to me hearing footballers complaining about playing football too much like it’s cruel and inhumane lol.

They’re on hundreds of thousands of pounds a week. A lot of players earn more in a week then a lot of people regular people will earn in a decade. Think about that, for running around on some grass a couple of times a week.

People in the real world have to go to work every day for literal Pennie’s compared to these guys.

Footballers train for a few hours in the day then play a game of football a couple of times a week for millions lol it’s laughable to hear them complain.

In the real world there is a cost of living crisis and inflation through the roof.

People are struggling to make ends meet and feed they’re family’s, not to mention what’s going on in Gaza, Israel, Ukraine etc

But were supposed to be bad for footballers feeling a bit tired from playing football for millions? Ridiculous and shows how out of touch top level football is with the real world.

I'm not saying even the highest level. It's more rare to see an elite athlete retired at 32 though. What other players have retired that young that isn't injury forced? 32 isn't that old

Or, hear me out, the managers actually use all the players in their 23 man squads or whatever it is, millionaires complaining about playing too much football is killing me off at this point

With how much they get paid, and they get the best physical treatment, facilities, chefs etc.

I’d be playing for all that no problem

I agree to a point. This is only really a problem for the absolute top players. There's maybe 20-30 eredivisie players who always start, play in Europe and start for their country. The other 400-500 players or so could probably care less, their load is fine. Figures may be different in the PL or La Liga but it's still going to be a problem for a small percentage. So it will be difficult to get everyone to agree to this.

International players union!

Why the fuck are they tiptoeing around it?

It's been like fourth interview about it.

A - YOU ARE SAYIN SOMETHING ABOUT IT

B - Footballers show how they are really not the brightest.

They really are privileged type of a worker, which has both time and money to organize biblical proportions of a union, but they don't for some reason.

Any real threat of a strike from such union and players, clubs and football organizations would shit their pants.

But they are just plain stupid with really weak ass union and just do PR stuff about it.

It's like that Mendy/Vini/Mephis case, when they are rather sniff their own farts and pat themselves on their back and do nothing about it.