FIFA faces complaint over footballers’ health risks amid busy schedule | Football news

The consortium of European football leagues and European footballers’ representative body FIFPRO Europe will file a joint complaint on Monday over FIFA’s international match schedule and risks to players’ health with European Union antitrust regulators.

European leagues and FIFPRO Europe announced their decision to file a complaint on Thursday, two weeks after Europe’s highest court ruled that world football’s governing body’s rules on player transfers broke EU laws. EU following a challenge from former French player Lassana Diarra.

The complaint also highlights a growing trend of disgruntled athletes and sports organizations turning to the EU’s antitrust authority to help ensure a level playing field and reduce the power of governing bodies.

The grievances of the European leagues and FIFPRO center on the international match schedule – which they say has become unsustainable for domestic leagues and poses a risk to players’ health, arguing that FIFA was abusing its market power.

FIFA in turn stated that the current calendar had been unanimously approved by its council after extensive consultation involving FIFPRO and league bodies.

The European Commission, which acts as the competition enforcement body in all 27 countries, can order companies to stop their anti-competitive practices and also impose fines.

#FIFPROLatest workload report reveals troubling impact of competitive expansion on men’s footballers.

⚠️ 54% of gamers face heavy workloads
📅 31% played more than 55 games last season
🛌 🚨 More than 80 games projected by 2025

📊 @Football_BM

– FIFPRO (@FIFPRO) September 5, 2024

A FIFPRO report published in September warned that the increasingly busy football calendar was putting players’ health at risk and leaving some with just 12 percent of the year to rest, which equates to less than a day off per week.

FIFPRO said the lack of rest contravenes international health and safety standards and is due to competition organizers not prioritizing the well-being of players.

A report for the 2023-24 season indicates that 54% of the 1,500 players monitored faced high workload demands, many of which exceeded medical recommendations.

Almost a third (31%) have appeared in more than 55 matches for the teams, and 17% have played more than 55 matches. About 30 percent participated in at least six consecutive weeks of two or more games per week.

All three European club competitions have been expanded to 36 teams this season and European FIFPRO member unions have launched legal action against FIFA over the expanded 32-team Men’s Club World Cup, which begins in June 2025 in the United States.

International matches, with a club or a country, represent 30 percent of matches for players with an excessive workload. Last season, players spent up to 18 percent of their annual working time on national team camps or media and partnership activities.

“The gap between those who plan and schedule complex international competitions and those who play and experience them has never been greater,” said Alexander Bielefeld, FIFPRO director of global policy and strategic relations, in a press release.

The report also predicts that players like Federico Valverde, Nicolo Barella and Phil Foden will play up to 80 matches in the coming seasons due to the expansion of competitions.

Another report from the International Center for Sports Studies (CIES) states that there is no clear evidence of an increase in the workload of elite players since the 2000s.

The independent Swiss research center, founded in 1995 as a joint venture including FIFA, reported that domestic leagues accounted for 82.2% of all matches played by players in the 40 leagues surveyed between the 2012-13 seasons. and 2023-24.

The report states that the average number of matches per club per season has remained stable at just over 40 between 2012 and 2024 and that around 5% of clubs play 60 or more matches per season (excluding friendlies).

In the 2023-24 season, England recorded the most consecutive domestic matches (87) among Europe’s top leagues, with Premier League clubs on average having the shortest recovery time between matches, or 67.3 hours. Additionally, English clubs also top the list for the most “non-European” friendlies played.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said the governing body organizes a small fraction of matches, but its financial contributions support the development of football across the world and benefit the sport globally.

“All other matches, 98 to 99 percent, are organized by other organizations, by different leagues, associations and confederations,” Infantino said during his speech at the FIFA Congress in Bangkok in May.

“With this 1 or 2 percent of matches organized by FIFA, FIFA finances football all over the world. The revenue we generate doesn’t just go to a few clubs in a single country. The revenue we generate goes to 211 countries. No other organization does this.