Europe’s leading players have been told they should not threaten strike action as an answer to their concerns about a congested calendar.
Manchester City midfielder Rodri said last month players were ‘close’ to going on strike. His comments have been supported by colleagues across Europe. Real Madrid pair Dani Carvajal and Thibaut Courtois have also said the demands being placed on them is too much.
City and Real are two of the 12 European clubs who will feature in next summer’s expanded Club World Cup in the United States, which will not finish until 13 July.
Although City have not lodged a formal request, manager Pep Guardiola said last Friday the Premier League had already told them they would not be granted a delay to the start of the 2025-26 campaign, which could start just four weeks later.
With the Champions League and Europa League expanding this season, with extra games, virtually every stakeholder accepts there is a problem.
Bayern Munich are also in the Club World Cup but the German giants’ chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen does not feel the players are looking at the issue in the right way.
“It is not right to threaten us with a strike from people who are on the top in terms of income,” he said at the European Clubs’ Association General Assembly in Athens. “There are a lot of other guys who don’t speak about that.
“If we have a team like us, with 16 or 18 national team players, who travel all over the globe to different national team competitions, that means a lot of serious things on the travel time they need. For them it is definitely hard to do the work and we have to take care of their welfare.”