Are Footballers Playing Too Much?

football has a serious problem for the 2024 25 season leading footballers could play up to 86 games this is down to an expanded FIFA Club World Cup which is due to finish in mid July 2025 as a result the world's best players will have barely four weeks before the following competitive season begins that's not even considering preseason training and friendlies which is crucial for preparing the body for the year ahead Midway through the 2025 26 season there's the African Cup of Nations and that summer there's the World Cup the lines between these exceptionally long seasons

are becoming increasingly blurred and players aren't getting enough time to rest and recover it's leading to more injuries of course we're talking about top footballers here they're the ones involved in the majority of these competitions and they're very well paid but the argument that Elite footballers are ridiculous money playing the game they love and therefore should just get on with this is naive if you can't see sympathies with footballers due to their wealth from a consumer perspective we as fans are going to be paying for a worse product as the quality of matches is being

and will be further harmed chief of football development for FIFA arson Wenger defended the expanded Club World Cup arguing that the welfare of the players in the last 20 years has increased dramatically he's not wrong but instead of letting footballers benefit from these advancements imply a welfare governing bodies like FIFA are taking advantage of them as an excuse to fill the calendar with games and competitions on the flip side footballers are crying out for some help Bernardo Silva rogery and rapael veran are just a few who have spoken of the dangerous workloads their minds and

bodies are being put through the professional footballers association's chief executive MTI mongu has even warned that players are ready to take legal action because they don't feel protected we're reaching a Tipping Point I'm going to show you why football's governing bodies want more games and competitions what impact this could have on players if it isn't solved and explain my controversial solution to this problem footballers are playing too much and something needs to be done before I show you why this issue has appeared I want to highlight some stats that show the severity of the situation

it's clear that footballers are being exposed to more matches at an early age when compared to previous generations at 22 venicius Jr had played 12,000 more minutes than Ronaldinho did at the same age that's equivalent to just over 133 full games by the time Killian mbappe turned 24 he had played 26952 minutes that's 48% more than what tiar on re had managed at the same age The increased minutes as a result of the increase in competitions for example during the 2022 23 season rodri played in Eight separate competitive competitions fif Pro is an organization that

supports and represents football bers worldwide they provided the stats that you've just heard their chief medical officer Professor Vincent gabage believes that too many matches is conducive to the development of mental health problems at the 2022 World Cup 43% of players surveyed experienced extreme or increased mental fatigue because we can clearly see a footballer's physical output we forget the damage fixture congestion is having on their minds as I mentioned earlier the number of injuries is rising Premier injuries I whose research has been conducted for over 20 years suggests that the total number of individual injuries

where a player missed at least one Premier League game was the highest they had ever recorded for the 2023 24 season these are just surface level stats that reveal the physical and mental stress footballers are under to understand why the amount of football matches is increasing you need to understand those that are in charge FIFA the governing body of football is a nonprofit organization that means it's there to serve the sport the money it generates must be reinvested back into the game those who run it or work for it are able to earn a salary

but its goal is not the same as a business it's not there to make a healthy profit it's there to provide a public service that may make it seem like money isn't a priority but to fulfill its purpose it needs to raise Capital the organization's main way of doing this is through the World Cup FIFA earned an unprecedented $7.5 billion in Revenue due to four years of commercial deals tied to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar despite this the organization wants more and is targeting $ 11 billion in Revenue through the 2026 World Cup when

taking all of this into consideration it's unsurprising to see Giani Infantino FIFA's president push for a World Cup every 3 years instead of the current fouryear cycle and call for way more football FIFA controls other nonprofit organizations like Comm bow calf and UEFA for FIFA and its subsidiaries to perform their public service to raise funds they need games and competitions this is why we're seeing fixture congestion this is why footballers are being and will be increasingly pushed to their mental and physical limits these nonprofits are prioritizing Revenue ahead of players Health it feels as though

they've forgotten that they're here to serve the sport even if football's governing bodies don't care about their people ironically with more games in competitions their precious product will be damaged if it isn't already following the 2023 UA Champions League final mahti mongu said it's supposed to be our Super Bowl it wasn't because one of the best players in the world de bruyne was out in the 30th minute Harland was exhausted Roger who was a top athlete said after 60 minutes he had cramps for us we've reached a stage where it's not just about the health

of the player it's about us killing the product prioritizing footballer's wellbeing won't just Ensure sure there are less injuries and players have longer careers it will make the quality of matches even better football's governing bodies need to start putting their people before their revenue the last few years have seen a number of young Stars enter the game as an extremely young age Jude Bellingham made his debut for Birmingham city age 16 and since then he practically hasn't stopped playing now in his early 20s he's one of the best players in the world and there's no

doubt he wouldn't be where he is today if he didn't get so much experience early on in his career however there can be darker chapters to these Amazing Stories for example Michael Owen a player was to Liverpool who took World football by storm at just 17 and went on to win the Balon door age 22 but following his move to Real Madrid those early minutes caught up with him and he faced an ongoing battle to stay fit for the rest of his career a career that fizzled out he admits himself that he played too much

too soon the total minutes he played before turning 20 was 9,187 Bellingham on the other hand played 14, 445 that's 5,258 more minutes now every player is different just because Owens early rise affected the latter part of his career doesn't mean we'll see the same for Bellingham but it could we already regularly see Bellingham playing through injuries often taking to the pitch and strapping then when you factor in that he plays for Real Madrid a team that plays in every competition and usually arrives in the final and is also a key man for his National

side there should be cause for concern we've seen the damaging effects of early minutes on young players already just look at pedri during the 2020 21 season aged just 18 pedri featured in 78 football matches which consisted of completing a full season for Barcelona and representing Spain at the euros and at the Tokyo Olympics shockingly he played 120 Minutes in the Olympics final on the 7th of August 2021 the last game of that season 8 days later he played 90 minutes of Barcelona's first game of the new La Liga season he had eight days between

two seasons with zero time to rest and recover physically and mentally today since the 15th of August 2021 he's had 10 separate injuries missing 465 days it wouldn't surprise me if that number climbed and climbed if footballers' well-being isn't soon prioritized we'll see more and more young stars who should shine into their late 30s fizzle out in their 20s I believe there's a way to solve this problem even if it's a little controversial my ideal remedy is to implement pling time regulations for young footballers this would see the number of minutes a footballer can play

in a season capped at certain ages once they reach a specific age for example 20 the regulations would end this means young players can still make their debuts gain experience in the professional game and make their Mark in the sport whilst also protecting the longevity of their career I think it's unrealistic to expect football's governing bodies to remove games and competitions from the calendar as I've shown they need and want the money regulating young footballers' playing time would give them the best chance of being able to deal with this hectic schedule later on in their

careers it would protect them that's my favorite solution to a problem that will continue to grow unless there's intervention