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(ANSA) – ROME, JUNE 24 – Too many games are played, to the detriment of the players’ physical preparation, and therefore of their health. But also the quality of the show that you would like to monetize. With the introduction of the Club World Cup in the format envisaged by FIFA for the summer of 2025 – from 7 to 32 teams – “the top players of the top clubs would play 85 matches over the course of a season” he underlined Umberto Heel, president of the AIC, spoke on ‘Radio anch’io sport’ (Rai Radio 1) to explain why the Assocalciatori Association joined the protest of its French and English colleagues, who sued FIFA before the Commercial Court of Brussels for the violation of the rights of players and their unions. “We regret the fact that, unilaterally and without consultation, a competition has been added to an already crowded calendar. The first studies by FIFPro (the international footballers’ union, ed.) on how harmful all this set of matches date back to 2019 – underlined Calcagno – Legal action is a strategy shared with the World League, the Lega Serie A is also with us in this battle. We have arrived at a context in which the top players could reach 85 matches in course of a season, without interruption compared to the previous one”.
There is also a risk of an impoverishment of the general level and quality: “We ask these guys to play more, but for this reason they can train very little, if almost never. Players with back-to-back commitments, i.e. with less than five days recovery from one match to the next, they now only carry out training sessions for relaxation or finishing. We have reached a point where, in order to maximize revenues, we risk our product being poorer in the long run.” In support of the unions’ reasons, Calcagno also cited an AIC study, according to which “in a squad of 32 players, eight play 50% of the total playing time. We are in a situation of overload. There is a huge concern also on the part of the players that they are no longer able to carry out their activities and that they cannot be at their best for such a high number of matches.” The objective that the protest aims to achieve is “to sit all of us at the same table. There are also collective agreements that provide for weekday periods and which today would fail – concluded Calcagno – The positive aspect is that it is no longer just a trade union issue If FIFA continues to refuse the possibility of intervening, we will have to be great experts to understand that a regulatory body that also imposes dates on the national teams and everything that is organized in the world of football cannot introduce a new one on its own. competition in the only rest period left for the players”. (HANDLE).
