World’s best footballers set to strike, say Club World Cup is a ‘Super League’ in disguise

Players have never been closer to going on strike amid growing discontent with football’s governing bodies, including Fifa and its new Club World Cup, likened to a “Super League “, the president of the players’ union Fifpro Europe said on Monday.

David Terrier was speaking to Reuters after Fifpro Europe, the Association of European Leagues and Spain’s La Liga accused Fifa of “abuse” as they filed a joint complaint over the body’s international match schedule global leader to European Union antitrust regulators.

Terrier said that only “social dialogue” between sport stakeholders could save its ecosystem.

“Obviously, as a union leader, I should dream of a strike because it gives you more power, but I am very attached to the concept of social dialogue,” Terrier said.

“To reach this extreme would be a serious failure, but this extreme is getting closer every day. The European Union must remind everyone of this and tell them that they must go through social dialogue.”

At a joint press conference on Monday, Fifpro Europe, the European Leagues and La Liga criticized Fifa’s busy match schedule, releasing videos of players including French captain Kylian Mbappe saying they had too much matches to be played.