TOO MANY GAMES: SOCCER OVERLOAD

Pressure is mounting on FIFA as players and leagues push back against an overloaded 2024/2025 soccer calendar.

In the glob­al soc­cer land­scape, resis­tance is mount­ing against FIFA’s relent­less push to expand the match cal­en­dar, cul­mi­nat­ing in a show­down over the pro­posed expan­sion of the Club World Cup in 2025. Play­ers, leagues, and fans alike are increas­ing­ly voic­ing their frus­tra­tions as the game is over­loaded with match­es, lead­ing to burnout, injuries, and dimin­ished fan engage­ment.

Тhe glob­al play­ers’ union FIF­Pro, along with the Euro­pean Leagues association—which rep­re­sents 39 divi­sions includ­ing the Pre­mier League, Serie A, and La Liga—filed a ground­break­ing legal com­plaint against FIFA. They accuse the gov­ern­ing body of abus­ing its role as both tour­na­ment orga­niz­er and reg­u­la­tor, push­ing for more games at the expense of play­er wel­fare. 

This com­plaint is the lat­est chap­ter in an ongo­ing bat­tle between FIFA and the key stake­hold­ers in world soc­cer. At the heart of the issue is FIFA’s con­tro­ver­sial deci­sion to expand the Club World Cup to 32 teams, which is set to take place in the Unit­ed States from June 15 to July 13, 2025. The deci­sion was made uni­lat­er­al­ly, adding to an already jam-packed fix­ture list that includes expan­sions in the Cham­pi­ons League, Europa League, and the intro­duc­tion of new com­pe­ti­tions like the UEFA Nations League.

The Legal Bat­tle: A Unit­ed Euro­pean Front

FIF­Pro and the Euro­pean Leagues took their con­cerns to the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, fil­ing an unprece­dent­ed antitrust com­plaint against FIFA. Accord­ing to Alexan­der Biele­feld, FIFPro’s direc­tor of pol­i­cy, this move chal­lenges the legal­i­ty of FIFA’s uni­lat­er­al deci­sion-mak­ing regard­ing the inter­na­tion­al match cal­en­dar. The com­plaint under­scores grow­ing con­cerns about how the relent­less push for more tour­na­ments is push­ing play­ers to their lim­its, both phys­i­cal­ly and men­tal­ly. The cal­en­dar is over­sat­u­rat­ed, leav­ing top play­ers with lit­tle to no time for recov­ery between sea­sons.

Euro­pean 2024 Play­ers. Image by goal.com.

Javier Tebas, pres­i­dent of La Liga, described the com­plaint as “one of the most impor­tant days in foot­ball,” empha­siz­ing the need for reform in how soccer’s gov­ern­ing insti­tu­tions oper­ate. Richard Mas­ters, Pre­mier League chief exec­u­tive, echoed this, warn­ing that the sport has reached a “tip­ping point,” with stake­hold­ers unit­ed in say­ing “enough is enough.” 

The Pre­mier League, Serie A, and oth­er major Euro­pean leagues have refrained from increas­ing their domes­tic sched­ules in recent years. The pri­ma­ry pres­sure has come from FIFA and UEFA, whose con­stant dri­ve to expand com­pe­ti­tions has left clubs and play­ers over­stretched. As Lui­gi De Sier­vo, CEO of Serie A, point­ed out, “While UEFA at least con­sult­ed with stake­hold­ers, FIFA imposed its new for­mat with­out any mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sion.”

Too Many Games, Too Lit­tle Recov­ery

The prob­lem of over­load­ing soc­cer’s cal­en­dar has been brew­ing for years. For­mer Barcelona and Spain defend­er Ger­ard Piqué recent­ly crit­i­cized FIFA and UEFA for their relent­less expan­sion of com­pe­ti­tions, sug­gest­ing that leagues should reduce the num­ber of teams and match­es to ease the bur­den on play­ers. Piqué, who retired in 2022, knows first­hand the toll that such con­gest­ed sched­ules take. “Play­ers are say­ing, ‘we are get­ting injured.’ There are games every three days, and there’s no time to rest,” he said.

The expan­sion of the Club World Cup, com­bined with the already grow­ing num­ber of match­es in oth­er tour­na­ments, has pushed play­ers like Man­ches­ter City’s Rodri to their break­ing point. The Span­ish mid­field­er recent­ly warned that play­ers are “close” to going on strike. The grow­ing frus­tra­tion among play­ers, who are increas­ing­ly vocal about their exhaus­tion, reflects the broad­er con­cern that the game’s gov­ern­ing bod­ies are pri­or­i­tiz­ing com­mer­cial inter­ests over play­er wel­fare.

Rodri’s com­ments res­onate across Europe, where coach­es like Pep Guardi­o­la and Car­lo Ancelot­ti have also raised alarms about the health risks posed by such a heavy sched­ule. “The match cal­en­dar is far too con­gest­ed,” Guardi­o­la said, call­ing for reforms before play­ers are forced to take dras­tic action.

FIFA’s Pri­or­i­ties: Mon­ey Over Play­ers?

FIFA’s recent moves have shown a clear pri­or­i­ti­za­tion of rev­enue over the health and well-being of play­ers. The intro­duc­tion of the expand­ed Club World Cup, aimed at show­cas­ing the world’s top clubs on a grand stage, is, accord­ing to FIFA Pres­i­dent Gian­ni Infan­ti­no, a move to cre­ate “more oppor­tu­ni­ties for teams to play at the high­est lev­el.” How­ev­er, crit­ics argue that this is sim­ply about fill­ing FIFA’s cof­fers by forc­ing clubs into more high-stakes com­pe­ti­tions.

Despite the protests from play­ers and leagues, FIFA has pressed ahead with its plans. The orga­ni­za­tion is bank­ing on the expand­ed Club World Cup to draw glob­al audi­ences, but the ear­ly signs sug­gest a grow­ing dis­in­ter­est among fans, who are becom­ing fatigued by the sheer num­ber of games. Broad­cast­ers have strug­gled to sell rights to the over­sat­u­rat­ed mar­ket, show­ing that FIFA may have over­es­ti­mat­ed the public’s appetite for more soc­cer.

The over­sat­u­ra­tion isn’t just a Euro­pean issue. Sim­i­lar com­plaints have arisen glob­al­ly, with new com­pe­ti­tions like the Leagues Cup in North Amer­i­ca and expand­ed domes­tic tour­na­ments fur­ther con­gest­ing the soc­cer cal­en­dar. Play­ers world­wide are being forced to play in more match­es with less recov­ery time, lead­ing to high­er injury rates and dimin­ish­ing the qual­i­ty of the sport.

What’s Next: Will Play­ers Strike?

The grow­ing oppo­si­tion from leagues, play­ers, and even broad­cast­ers sug­gests that FIFA’s relent­less push for more games may soon face seri­ous resis­tance. The antitrust com­plaint filed with the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion could set a legal prece­dent that forces FIFA to recon­sid­er its approach. But legal action alone may not be enough to change the course of glob­al soc­cer gov­er­nance.

It may take bold actions from play­ers like Rodri and man­agers like Ancelot­ti to tru­ly force change. Strike action, which has been hint­ed at by sev­er­al top play­ers, could be the next step if FIFA refus­es to lis­ten to the grow­ing cho­rus of dis­con­tent. 

Fans, too, may play a cru­cial role. If sup­port­ers show less inter­est in over­sat­u­rat­ed tour­na­ments like the 2025 Club World Cup, it could send a clear mes­sage to FIFA: fans and play­ers want few­er, bet­ter-qual­i­ty games, not a relent­less sched­ule that puts the sport’s future at risk. Whether it’s a play­ers’ strike or dwin­dling fan engage­ment, the mes­sage to soccer’s gov­ern­ing bod­ies is the same: enough is enough.