FIFPro believes players are being overburdened

The International Association of Professional Footballers (FIFPro) has released a report on player workload. It notes that in the 2022/23 season it “became unprecedented.” The reason, according to FIFPro, is that the 2022 FIFA World Cup was not held as usual in the summer, but in November-December. As a result, top football players, who already had little rest in the off-season, had to bear an additional burden. For example, Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes played in 72 matches and spent 6,666 minutes on the field from September 2022 to September 2023.

The International Professional Footballers’ Association has again drawn attention to the excessive workload of players. FIFPro examined data relating to the employment of 1,800 players (1,500 men and 300 women) between September 15, 2022 and September 15, 2023. Such an unusual period, in particular for European football, (in most European countries the seasons start in late summer – early autumn and end no later than June of the next year) was chosen because the FIFA World Cup was held in Qatar in 2022. It did not take place as usual in the summer, but in November-December. The information collected by FIFPro specialists indicates, they believe, that the load on the players has reached a level that threatens their health.

A striking example is the story of Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes. Including his appearances for Portugal at the World Cup, he spent 6,666 minutes on the field during the reporting period, taking part in 72 matches. This is a record for the load on players during the reporting period. Let us note that Bruno Fernandes’s salary at Manchester United is about €14.5 million (that is, his one appearance on the field costs more than €201 thousand). The Portuguese also holds the record for the number of matches that are played in the back-to-back category in FIFPro statistics. This is not about the players taking the field every day. It’s just that FIFPro believes that between games football players should have at least five days to rest. And Bruno Fernandes did not fit into this range 20 times in a row. But, for example, Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea, Argentina national team, salary €11 million per year) was forced to play 70% of his games in back-to-back mode. True, he spent less time on the field than Bruno Fernandes.

FIFPro also noted that top football players get little rest. For example, Raphael Varane (Manchester United, French national team, salary €20 million per year) was able to rest only eight days after the World Cup final, in which the French lost to the Argentines. And a number of lower-ranking players were forced to return to club work just four days after their team’s elimination from the world championship.

The FIFPro report provides information according to which, due to the postponement of the World Cup to November-December, the usual days for players to prepare for the tournament and recover after it were disrupted. Previously, they averaged about 30 days (both for preparation and rest). In the case of the 2022 World Cup (it started in the middle of the club championship season in Europe), it turned out that many football players began preparing for the tournament on average seven days before its start, and again received an average of eight days to recover.

Let us note that this is not the first time that FIFPro has drawn attention to the fact that football officials overload players. In particular, back in March of this year, a FIFPro report was published, which noted the negative impact of an oversaturation of the calendar on the health of football players. It was noted that during the 2022 World Cup, almost 10% of its participants were injured – an amazingly high figure for such a short period of time.

Alexander Petrov