There have been many voices that have come forward to raise the possibility of a football players’ strike. At issue is the increasingly demanding schedule they have to adhere to.
The threat of a strike by footballers, given the competitive overload, correlated with a higher frequency of injuries, requires special conditions to be implemented, experts in sports law admit to Lusa.
“While it is not unprecedented, it requires very specific conditions, given the specific nature of the industry. However, it is a scenario that is perfectly likely to happen. We have an extremely overloaded calendar and this new Club World Cup will not help in that regard. The complaints are quite legitimate and valid, because such overload can have harmful effects on the physical and mental health of athletes, in addition to other consequences, such as reducing the holiday period”, stated Gonçalo Almeida, lawyer and judge of the Chamber of Agents of the FIFA Football Court.
Disputed annually since 2005 by the six continental champions, plus one club from the host country, the World Cup will adopt a four-yearly frequency from 2025 at the end of the European season and will be held from June 15 to July 13 in the United States.
The 32 teams from five confederations, including Benfica and FC Porto, will be drawn on Thursday into eight groups of four teams each, with the top two teams going through to the knockout stage, which will feature one-legged matches from the round of 16 onwards.
“In North and South America, there will be a congestion of competitions and this will create conflicts in the clubs’ planning, as some will be faced with two or more competitions taking place at the same time and with overlapping dates. In addition, this World Cup will be held in the United States and will involve extensive travel, which will further increase the risk of exhaustion,” he recalled, referring to the differences in pace and fatigue between the 32 teams at that stage of the year.
FIFA will also increase the number of teams in the World Cups in 2026, from 32 to 48, while UEFA has already included 36 teams in the revamped league stages of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League, all previously contested by 32 teams.
“My understanding is that there has been dialogue between industry stakeholders. Some accuse FIFA of limited and inflexible dialogue or the representatives of the industry of wanting to take the lead and have greater decision-making power. I understand that the latter should have an increasingly participatory role, but from there to determining the path that FIFA takes seems to me clearly exaggerated. There has to be balance”, pointed out Gonçalo Almeida.
In October, the Association of European Leagues, led by Pedro Proença, also president of the Portuguese Professional Football League (LPFP), and the International Federation of Professional Footballers’ Associations (FIFPro) filed a complaint with the European Commission against FIFA, due to the overload of the international calendar.
“I have serious doubts that these strikes will be carried out, which does not mean that I am not completely on the side of the players when they demand a series of gross violations of universal rights that they are entitled to and that are not respected by FIFA. I believe that the players are the ones who will have to give in the most. We have not seen any extraordinary movement from the clubs. They saw a lifeline in the European Super League, which FIFA rejected outright, including the imposition of sanctions”, highlighted Jerry Silva, lawyer and referee at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAD).
The idea of a football strike was raised about three months ago by Spaniard Rodri, midfielder for four-time English champions Manchester City and winner of the Ballon d’Or in 2023/24, followed by other critics, including teammates Rúben Dias and Bernardo Silva, central defender and attacking midfielder for the Portuguese national team, respectively.
“The players will either be weakened or they will have to take a very strong stance and create a tug of war, which, on the other hand, could have a very perverse effect. In certain circumstances, it is clear that they can reserve the right to participate or not in certain competitions, but, within the contractual period, this refusal could result in disciplinary proceedings, with consequences arising therefrom,” he warned.
According to a report by FIFPro, striker Julián Alvarez, now with Spanish side Atlético de Madrid, stood out worldwide in terms of number of matches played last season, with 75 between Manchester City and Argentina, while his compatriot Cristián Romero, central defender for English side Tottenham, was the one who travelled the most hours (211) and led in distance covered (162,978 kilometres) during the clubs’ stops for FIFA dates.
“We talk about the players, but we are forgetting that this is also absolutely atrocious violence towards the coaches. It is clear that an athlete has a brutal physical burden, but a coach and his coaching staff experience extreme mental exhaustion in preparing for games and at the end of all this time”, concluded Jerry Silva.
