Jurgen Klopp, who formerly managed Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund, has always spoken out against the growing fixture congestion in elite football and its consequences on the welfare and well-being of professional players. He has repeatedly used his platform to advocate for improved conditions for players. The newly renovated FIFA Club World Cup, now taking place during a month-long window during the European summer break, was the subject of his anger this time.

The summer has now been consumed by a different competition that further cuts into the rest and recovery time for the top teams, who already play more than 60 club games in a 10-month period, with fixtures piling up especially for them. Klopp was furious at this and criticized the decision-makers for failing to account for how this would affect the players.

The German said angrily in an interview with Welt am Sonntag that the Club World Cup is "the worst idea ever implemented in football in this regard" because it focuses on the game itself rather than the events surrounding it.

"People who have never had or no longer have anything to do with daily business are coming up with something. There is insane money for participating, but it's also not for every club," Klopp went on. Klopp frequently wondered while managing Liverpool how many games his club was required to play as they participated in six or seven separate tournaments during the same campaign.

"The Club World Cup is this year, the World Cup is next year, and the Copa [America] and the European Championship were last year." According to Klopp, who is now the head of global football for Red Bull, this indicates that the players engaged will not fully recover, either physically or psychologically. "I have grave concerns that next season, or perhaps at the World Cup or later, athletes will sustain injuries they've never sustained previously.

"The entire product loses value," Klopp cautioned FIFA

FIFPro, the international representative organization for football players, supports Klopp's position. In a meeting with FIFA last winter, FIFPro had expressed these worries, but had little luck in changing course.

The players have also grown more vocal in expressing their frustrations. For example, Spanish and Manchester City midfielder Rodri played an incredible 63 games in the 2023/24 season. Although he won the Ballon d'Or for his talent and consistency, he also sustained an ACL injury that kept him out of the most recent campaign.

Klopp echoed Rodri's claim that the players were on the verge of striking due to the increasing number of fixtures being imposed nearly unilaterally by the powers that be in world football: "We constantly expect the players to go into every game as if it were their last." We inform them of this between 70 and 75 times a year. However, things can't continue in this manner. Since they won't be able to produce peak performances if they don't get breaks, we must ensure they do, and if they can't do that anymore, the whole product loses value.

Any European team that makes it to the Club World Cup final will have fewer than a month till the formal beginning of the new season, which means that players may not have any time off for a summer vacation. In the coming months, it will be important to watch how FIFA handles the growing criticism and pressure, particularly in light of the rise in football injuries.

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