According to Mehr reporter, the design of competitions such as European Nations League, European Club League and European Conference League, the increase in the number of teams in the 2026 World Cup led to an increase in the number of competitions that players must play during the season. This issue, despite the rich income that it brings to organizations such as UEFA, FIFA, confederations and federations, puts tremendous pressure on football players.
The Italian newspaper “Fatto Cotidiano” addressed this issue in a note and criticized the increase in the number of football matches and compared it to horse racing.
The paper tackles the plight of footballers today with a film by Sydney Pollack entitled ‘They Get Rid Of Horses, Don’t They?’ has compared The film is about people who are all trying hard to win an endurance dance competition, and an opportunist who makes a lot of money from the competition encourages them to compete.
It is true that football players earn a lot of money, but equally they have to submit to the profiteering of the machines that organize football matches, whose goal is nothing but to increase their income as much as possible, and has increased the number of matches and the rhythm of games with a staggering speed, and has turned players into workers. The ball and the ground were converted.
This newspaper wrote: According to medical studies regarding the players’ physical strength and the effects of anti-inflammatory drugs, the maximum number of games a football player should play in a year is 38 matches. However, the increase in the number of teams participating in national championships such as England, Spain and Italy to 20 teams increased the number of competitions to 38 teams in one season.
In 2018, with a crazy idea from Michel Platini, the former UEFA president who was sacked for corruption, the European body launched the “League of Nations”: a silly tournament for national teams, held every two years, which It makes the number of matches of the national teams to increase from at least 8 matches in the qualifying stage of the World Cup to at least 14 matches.
UEFA was not satisfied with this and two years ago decided to launch the “Europa League” and “European Conference League” club competitions. There are 32 teams in each of these competitions and each team has to play 6 to 15 matches in these competitions. Is.
Next year, instead of 32 teams, the European Champions League will be held with 36 teams, and this will increase the number of teams in the group stage from 6 to 8 matches, and in this league, the total number of matches will reach 203 matches from the current 137 matches.
This newspaper continues to write: Can FIFA sit and sit on its hands and do nothing? of course not! They decided to hold the 2026 World Cup with the participation of 48 teams, and from 2025, the Club World Cup will start with the participation of 36 teams in 8 four-team groups. Of course, everyone is happy now, and UEFA and FIFA are making huge amounts of money, and the incomes of teams and players have increased.
But in the long run, the only ones who will lose out are the players, and when it comes to people’s health, someone has to intervene. If scientific studies say that a player should play a maximum of 38 matches per season, then forcing thousands of players to play 70 matches per year is a crime. Players nowadays don’t practice anymore, they just compete. So the title of “Sydney Pollock” should be changed to “They Get Rid of the Players, Don’t They?”