FIFA and UEFA continue to exploit, but players, clubs and leagues do not fist

Every year, a major international study by the international actors’ organization FIFPro arrives in your mailbox. That top footballers are so overloaded with overloaded schedules that the profession of professional football is no longer healthy, as evidenced by all sorts of physical injuries and mental issues. A good work-rest ratio is hard to find, because it’s not just about playing, training and healing, but also about traveling a lot.

enough players

UEFA and FIFA agree with the findings that the fixture list is overloaded, but everyone refuses to settle for less. Despite the theft. In fact, more tournaments will be added and existing tournaments will be expanded. More participants means more competitions and more money. Enough players, that’s the idea of ​​umbrella organisations. Moreover, it generates important votes for leaders such as UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin and Gianni Infantino as FIFA President.

UEFA organizes the European Championship qualifiers, the European Championship, the Champions League and the Europa League. The Nations League for national teams has been added since 2018 and in 2021 the Conference League came into being as the little brother of CL and EL. In the meantime, the number of participants in all these tournaments has been increased considerably and new formats will be introduced from 2024, in which more matches will be played with the same number of participants.

Lemon

FIFA is not left out either. In 1974, sixteen countries qualified for the World Cup and that rose from 24 entrants to 32 at the last World Cup in Qatar late last year. But there is more capital in the lemon if you squeeze it more and thus 48 countries can qualify for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada. That means no less than forty more matches: from 64 to 104. Of course, more tournament days are needed for that. Where the previous World Cup in Qatar ended in 29 days, the 2026 World Cup will take no less than forty days.

It affects players, clubs and national leagues. It hardly gives them anything more in a direct sense and they are even more compromised. But money for FIFA, which in fact has all these players available for free to organize its own tournament, while the clubs as employers are compensated for almost nothing.

But FIFA is benevolent. Caterpillar Never Enough has already released a few trial balloons, but would like to run a few more tournaments to generate revenue, some of which will end up in clubs. Like an expanded World Cup for club teams, a format that once consisted of two games, a clash between the champions of South America against the champions of Europe. This has now been extended to champions from other continents. But why not a larger tournament with several high-level participants from all continents? And in between there is also a World League of Nations with the best countries in the world. Because the cash register has to ring, right?

After strong criticism from Europe, UEFA, the idea of ​​the World League of Nations has (for the moment) been rejected. It would cannibalize the European Championship as one of UEFA’s cash cows.

25 instead of seven clubs

But this biggest World Cup for club teams will come from 2025. Then it will not be seven clubs (six continental champions and the champion of the host country) that will qualify, but 32 clubs that will qualify for the tournament final. FIFA smells the money in the Middle East, where it opens its arms wide to President Infantino and his followers. To make it financially and commercially attractive in advance, especially for European and South American supporters – the two biggest football markets with top clubs – these two continental associations are allowed to register twelve and six clubs respectively.

Quite remarkably, UEFA hardly protested against the presentation of this new tournament. Whereas he had previously defended himself so fiercely against the Super League initiative of big clubs in England, Italy and Spain. In the corridors of the Swiss headquarters of UEFA and FIFA in Nyon and Zurich, it is whispered that it is about change. At the supreme moment, FIFA boss Infantino withdrew his support in 2021 from the Super League initiative in which he was closely involved.

In exchange for unplugging and torpedoing the UEFA Champions League, FIFA is allowed to expand the World Cup for club teams to 32 participants. It’s all the great game of the administrators of the green table, who shuffle players, clubs and national leagues like grand masters with pawns on the chessboard. Anything to make money and vote to stay in power.