World Players Union Alert

The footballers who will play the World Cup this month at face of Qatar increased risk of injury and stress due to the tight schedule, the international players’ union warned FIFPRO in a report published yesterday Tuesday, which highlights the lack of recovery time that the players will have at the end of the competition.

Europe’s top leagues have just entered a mid-season break to accommodate the tournament in Qatar, which will run from November 20 to December 18. premier league English will resume on Boxing Day, just eight days after the World Cup final, compared to breaks before resuming domestic leagues of 26 days and 34 days after the 2018 and 2014 editions, respectively.

“After a packed first half of the current league season, the average preparation and recovery time for many players will be seven and eight days respectively, almost four times less than usual,” the report said. .

“This is likely to increase the risk of muscle damage and mental stress. The significantly reduced preparation and recovery periods before and after this World Cup pose a threat to the health of the players and make it difficult to optimize of performance.”

The report also analyzed the players’ workload between July 2021 and October 2022, finding that team members Portugal they have the most accumulated minutes in the field of 32 teams at the World Cup, followed by Brazil and Mexico.

Liverpool and Netherlands defender Virgil van Dijk tops the list for the most minutes played in the time period analysed, with 7,597 minutes on the pitch. Joao Cancelo, Sadio Mane, Antonio Rüdiger and Harry Kane are the other players to have played more than 7,200 minutes.

“The data highlights the mental and physical strain many national team players face due to a tight match schedule that does not adequately take into account their health and performance,” said FIFPRO Assistant General Secretary Simon Colossus.