December 20 – FIFA’s head of global football development, Arsene Wenger, has backed plans for an expanded Club World Cup from 2025 and downplayed concerns about overload and player welfare.
The 32-team competition has come in for intense criticism from players, coaches and world players’ union Fifpro for impacting mental and physical health as well as personal lives
But Wenger (pictured) responded: “”The welfare of the players in the last 20 years has increased dramatically as well, when you look at injury prevention, recovery work, nutrition and advances in medical technology. It is unrecognisable from what it used to be.”
“I accept that the football calendar is a busy one, but this is a competition that is going to take place every four years and of course the rest period during the competition and afterwards has to be respected.”
The former Arsenal manager justified FIFA’s decision by arguing that having a club competition similar to the World Cup was entirely logical. “It will give more opportunities to more players all over the world to compete at the highest level.”
A report by Fifpro this year found that 43% of players surveyed from last year’s World Cup – which was held midway through many seasons in November and December – experienced “extreme or increased mental fatigue”.
But Wenger argued that current career longevity proves that advances in player welfare have worked.
“We see players receiving world awards, the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, (Karim) Benzema, all over the age of 35. And it is not unusual to see international careers lasting over 20 years. Not so long ago, that was not possible.”
Having championed the idea of a biennial World Cup, only for it to be dropped amid fierce opposition, the Frenchman wants to find ways of making all the confederations as strong as Europe.
“The positive impact that this will have on clubs is going to be huge, because it will increase resources for clubs all over the world to develop and to compete. In Europe we are lucky, but it’s important that we make football really global and this creates a chance for other clubs to progress, this is the real target.”
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