https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5514538/2024/05/27/football-calendar-congestion-injuries/
“Everyone across the board understands it is a problem for the industry,” Maheta Molango, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, the players’ trade union in England, and a FIFPro board member, tells The Athletic. “We’ve got a situation we’ve never had before. It’s gone from a players’ problem, a union’s problem, to an industry problem. Everyone is conscious that this is not sustainable.
“Now players are managing (their effort in) games. I’ve had them tell me this. They don’t play 100 per cent, they try and play maybe 60 or 70 per cent and manage. Yet the fans pay full price. It would be like me paying to watch Beyonce but I don’t get to see her full show.
“This year is when people realise that all of it doesn’t fit. You look at the calendar and it’s not possible. It’s no longer a question of being a threat that’s coming down the line. It’s here.”
Bruno Fernandes, the Manchester United captain, is another example of the sustained pressure to play.
Since the start of the 2020-21 season, he has made 256 appearances for the club and his country, Portugal. Even including three summer breaks, that amounts to Fernandez featuring in a game every 5.2 days across the four campaigns.
The modern era threatens to drain the batteries of emerging talent over time. FIFPro’s numbers, detailed in their Workload Report for 2022-23, say Jude Bellingham had played 14,445 minutes of senior football before his 20th birthday. Wayne Rooney, another English prodigy from an earlier era, clocked only 10,989. Kylian Mbappe, meanwhile, is said to have played 37 per cent more minutes than fellow France striker Thierry Henry did at the same age.
Then there is Pedri, Barcelona and Spain’s boy wonder. He is not 22 until November but has already made more than 200 appearances for club and country. Injuries are now stunting his once-rapid development, hardly surprising given, for example, he played in the European Championship and Olympics back-to-back in the summer of 2021, starting 12 games out of 12.
“Everyone across the board understands it is a problem for the industry,” Maheta Molango, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, the players’ trade union in England, and a FIFPro board member, tells The Athletic. “We’ve got a situation we’ve never had before. It’s gone from a players’ problem, a union’s problem, to an industry problem. Everyone is conscious that this is not sustainable.
“Now players are managing (their effort in) games. I’ve had them tell me this. They don’t play 100 per cent, they try and play maybe 60 or 70 per cent and manage. Yet the fans pay full price. It would be like me paying to watch Beyonce but I don’t get to see her full show.
“This year is when people realise that all of it doesn’t fit. You look at the calendar and it’s not possible. It’s no longer a question of being a threat that’s coming down the line. It’s here.”
Bruno Fernandes, the Manchester United captain, is another example of the sustained pressure to play.
Since the start of the 2020-21 season, he has made 256 appearances for the club and his country, Portugal. Even including three summer breaks, that amounts to Fernandez featuring in a game every 5.2 days across the four campaigns.
The modern era threatens to drain the batteries of emerging talent over time. FIFPro’s numbers, detailed in their Workload Report for 2022-23, say Jude Bellingham had played 14,445 minutes of senior football before his 20th birthday. Wayne Rooney, another English prodigy from an earlier era, clocked only 10,989. Kylian Mbappe, meanwhile, is said to have played 37 per cent more minutes than fellow France striker Thierry Henry did at the same age.
Then there is Pedri, Barcelona and Spain’s boy wonder. He is not 22 until November but has already made more than 200 appearances for club and country. Injuries are now stunting his once-rapid development, hardly surprising given, for example, he played in the European Championship and Olympics back-to-back in the summer of 2021, starting 12 games out of 12.
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