For the vast majority of footballers, little has changed. The amount of league games tend to remain the same over the years and cup competitions stay consistent. But for players at the top level of the sport, things are quite a bit different. The added matches in the Champions League, the recently introduced UEFA Nations League and the new FIFA Club World Cup are just the tip of the iceberg. The decision makers in football have been introducing more games for professionals to play every year, one that footballers are standing to take a stand against.
And former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness believes they are right to do so, saying football may well decline if this schedule is maintained:
“Our sport won’t be doing well for much longer,” Hoeness assessed, via @iMiaSanMia. “Human performance is finite. And if things continue like this, the players will eventually simply not be able to cope anymore. The pressure must come from us, the clubs, and the players. That is why I understand that the first players are starting to ignore national team call-ups for fear of injury.”
This stands in interesting contrast to colleague Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who suggests that the push for more games results from player’s desire for higher wages.
