Former soccer coach Juergen Klopp, speaks during a press conference where he officially introduced as Global Head of Soccer at Red Bull in Salzburg, Austria, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Haiko Mandl)
With the football calendar becoming congested than ever, Red Bull head of global football Jurgen Klopp slammed the Club World Cup, scheduled for summer 2025, saying it was asking too much for players who are already playing a lot of matches.
“I think it’s useless. It doesn’t help if you have no summer break. Who wins the tournament is the poorest winner of all time because he has to play the whole summer through and then the league starts again. We have now a lot of injuries in European football. We have to reduce the amount of games. That means in some leagues it would be better (if) you have 18 instead of 20. That means in other competitions, you don’t add games,” the former Liverpool manager said.
“In Germany, you could watch handball. In Austria, you could watch skiing or whatever. You have other wonderful sports that you could watch in that time. You don’t have to fill each gap with football,” Klopp added.
Last year, Manchester City’s Rodri and Kevin de Bruyne had spoken up about the increased workload in football with the 2024 Ballon d Or winner even saying top players are close to going on strike because of the number of games they are having to play.
The Spain international said players are concerned about the way the game is headed as more games are added to the calendar in competitions like the Champions League, which starts on Tuesday.
“I think we are close to that,” he had said in a news conference ahead of City’s Champions League opener against Inter Milan. “It’s easy to understand. You ask any player, he will say the same — it’s not the opinion of (just) Rodri or whoever. I think it’s a general opinion of the players.”
“The problem will come when we finish the Club World Cup. We know there will only be three weeks between the Club World Cup final and the first day of the Premier League. You have three weeks to take a vacation, and prepare to play another 80 games. We can try to say something, no solution has been found. They don’t care. It’s money that talks,” Kevin de Bruyne had also stated.
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