At the dawn of the second day of the Champions League, the positions defended by the main players in the European competition do not vary one iota. Fed up is widespread among the players and the outings against the “overloaded calendar”THE “long seasons without rest periods” and the “risk of injury” multiply.
LINK OTHER PAPER
Regretting being little or even not consulted, considered as adjustment variables by the authorities, many leading players playing in Europe and regularly called up for the national team have decided to bang their fist on the table. “We see that there are more and more injuries due to lack of rest. We have been saying this for three or four years and no one listens to us”emphasized Jules Koundé.
“Everyone has had enough”decided Alisson, the Brazilian goalkeeper of Liverpool. “It makes no sense, we cannot play 72 matches, it is impossible to maintain the same level with so many matches and trips,” added Madrilenian Dani Carvajal… While legal action has been taken by the unions, THE Spanish European champion Rodri took on the mantle of leader: “If it continues like this, we will have no other choice” than going on strike, he confided on September 17 at a press conference.
The increase in the number of meetings, denounced by footballers, is at the heart of the problem. But UEFA and Fifa, who rely on a recent report from the CIES Football Observatory, assure that it is not real. “Between 2012 and 2024, the average number of matches per club and season remained stable at just above 40 (42.4 for 2023-2024)”it is specified, not without recalling that “40 of the most competitive leagues in the world” are analyzed. Enough to smooth out the higher average of the best European teams.
If we just look at the current year, the schedule for these teams is swelling quickly. With the new formula of the Champions League, there are now eight matches and no longer six before the knockout phase, itself weighed down by a play-off round. Not to mention the Club World Cup, where 32 teams, including 12 Europeans, will compete for a month in the summer of 2025 in the United States.
It is the Manchester City players who could experience the densest season. By completing all the competitions in which they are engaged (championship, FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield, Champions League, Club World Cup), the English champions could play 75 matches. A figure which could rise to 85 for internationals called up with their national selections for the Nations League and the 2026 World Cup qualifiers.
:quality(50)/2024/09/27/2024-09-18-17-07-36-window-66f71dbb1fd90913990443.png)
Over the last 20 years, big clubs like Real Madrid or Manchester United have already experienced such dense schedules (66 matches in 2001-2002 for the Merengues, 66 also in 2008-2009 for the Red Devils and up to 71 in 2020 -2021 during the Covid period). But seasons with more than 60 matches remained rare (six out of the last 20 for the Mancunian club, five for the Madrilenians).
The reasons for concern are, however, much more numerous and are not limited to the increase in the number of matches, according to a report from the International Federation of Professional Footballers’ Associations (FIFPro), for which 1,500 players were surveyed to determine precise monitoring of their workload.
The data is worrying, explains Vincent Gouttebarge, head of the medical service of the main players’ union: “We noticed that those involved in European Cups and national teams last season had on average less than one day off per week and spent 88% of their time in a work environment (matches, training, traveling with different time zones, care…).”
The one who also heads the working group on mental health of the International Olympic Committee is concerned about increased psychological fatigue among many players, who may have difficulty maintaining a social and family balance. This is one of the reasons which pushed Raphaël Varane to retire internationally at the end of the 2022 World Cup, in addition to recurring injuries.
Does the announcement of his professional retirement, at just 31 years old, on September 25, suggest shorter careers in the future? “Today, young people are starting earlier and earlier and are exposed to a very high number of matches which can have mental, muscular and joint consequences.notes Vincent Gouttebarge.
When, in 1996, David Beckham played the 54th match of his career at the age of 21, his compatriot Jude Bellingham played 251. Even precocious generational talents like Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi were far from such rhythms, at the start of the 2000s (191 matches for the Portuguese, 128 for the Argentinian).
:quality(50)/2024/09/28/075-bretonhernandez-realmadr240917-np0t1-66f8532adb485317224803.jpg)
Former physical trainer for Lille, Celtic, the 2018 world champion French team and Real Madrid under Zinédine Zidane, Grégory Dupont was one of the first to take an interest in the link between number of matches and recovery. “At Celtic, I saw the players doing it every three dayshe says. The study I conducted in 2010 showed that there were six times more injuries when players had less than four days of recovery, and that it was the hamstring that was most affected, being a muscle that tires more.”
“Always playing the same players, at a given moment, that no longer holds. You have to rotate, regulate. If the coaches are benevolent, there is sometimes a constraint of result which does not really leave a choice. In the report from FIFPro, 78% of coaches say they play players who they know are not 100%.”
Grégory Dupont, former physical trainer for the France team and Real Madridat franceinfo: sport
At the same time, the intensity of matches at the very highest level has also increased over the years. A 2023 medical study highlights a 30% increase in the number of sprints and explosive efforts (pressing, accelerations) in the space of ten years, generating more muscle damage. Epidemiological analyzes carried out by UEFA explained that two thirds of injuries contracted by footballers occurred without contact.
In addition to this already explosive cocktail, the effective playing time has also become more important, even if adjustments have been made recently, such as the five substitutions authorized or the absence of additional time exceeding ten minutes in competitions. of UEFA this season, going against what had been decided by Fifa since the 2022 World Cup.
“The problem of injuries among footballers is multifactorial. I would also say that it is due to training that is not always adapted, or even less traininganalyzes Olivier Allain, physical trainer who took care of several of them. Having discussed it with certain analysts, capable of measuring everything, they sometimes highlighted the fact that certain players did not work enough during the sessions. Many love matches, competition, and that’s where there can be a mismatch between the demands required on the pitch and what they will produce in training.”
The argument is all the more valid when the calendar thickens and forces the staff to lighten their sessions with small bulls, muscular awakening, games without intensity… To compensate, most of the best players now have their own physical trainer and physiotherapist outside the club and a gym set up at home to train and optimize their recovery.
The job of physical trainer in a club is no longer the same, confirms Grégory Dupont: “When I started in the late 1990s, my goal was to develop the physical potential of each player based on their skills and abilities. shortages”analyzes the man who is also president of the Felis agency, specialized in supporting clubs and players in their performance approach.
“Today, the challenge is to do everything to avoid injury, otherwise it backfires on you. We don’t look at whether the player is progressing, we do prevention.”
Grégory Dupont, former physical trainer for the France team and Real Madridat franceinfo: sport
Experts contacted by FIFPro estimated that a maximum of 55 matches per season per player should be set to avoid an overflow. A figure mentioned in 2016 in a working group organized by Fifa, remembers Vincent Gouttebarge: “We had broken down the 52 weeks of the year by considering that with a summer break (at least four weeks), a winter break with a little physical preparation (two to three weeks) and five weeks in the summer during the pre -season, there were 40 weeks left to plan matches, or approximately nine and a half months, over a four-week series, it is estimated that there should be a maximum of six matches. Scientific data must support this thinking, but c. This explains this threshold of 55 matches to preserve the integrity of footballers.”
The possibility of a list of players protected after national team matches and who would not immediately join their clubs could also be studied. French rugby has embarked on this path as part of the agreement between the French Federation and the National League. But in recent months, another element affecting organisms has been the subject of in-depth discussion: global warming.
Sometimes forced to play in very hot weather, increasing the physiological load and fatigue, players are required to travel frequently to countries where temperatures are high. “We had Qatar during the 2022 World Cup, there will perhaps be Saudi Arabia in 2034, and even in New York or Dallas in 2026, in the middle of summer. There may be high alert levelsspecifies Vincent Gouttebarge. With the time difference and to have interesting broadcast times in several countries, it is possible that there will be matches in the middle of the afternoon.”
To make matters worse, the format of the next World Cup (in the United States, Canada and Mexico), which increases the number of participants from 32 to 48, should add one more match with the appearance of a 16th final. A small drop of water that could overflow a vase already filled to the brim?