The never-ending season #3: Why are players like Rodri considering a strike? FIFPRO data makes their case
The players’ union says the ‘red zone’ is 55 games per season, but some players will play 80 – while flying 100,000 miles for club and country
Rodri played 50 times for Manchester City last season and another 13 for Spain as City won a fourth Premier League title in a row and then Spain won Euro 2024.
Sixty-three matches, most of them won, nearly always on the back of his phenomenal consistency. It’s been legitimate for some time to ask the question: is this 28-year-old DM is the most important player in the best team in the world?
Perhaps surprisingly, he isn’t currently the bookmakers’ favourite to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or, which will be announced on 28 October; Vinícius Júnior holds that status for now.
Bur Rodri (below) is very much in the conversation, and is, by common consensus, one of the best footballers in the world today. Reports that he will likely miss the rest of this season following an ACL tear against Arsenal will have been met by despair by City fans.
That news comes less than a week after Rodri said top players are close to going on strike over the game’s congested calendar, and football’s governing bodies, not least UEFA and FIFA, might be heading for trouble.
As detailed in the first part of this “Never-ending season” series, the Champions League has expanded this season, essentially for money. And as detailed in the second part, FIFA is introducing a new and expanded Club World Cup from next summer, with the biggest clubs interested mainly because of a potential payday.
The upshot, however is a calendar more congested than ever.
This has led Rodri and others to saying a strike is getting closer. "I think we are close to that,” he said. “If it keeps [on] this way, it will be a moment that we have no other option.”
He was backed by his manager, Pep Guardiola, who said it would be down to players to force change. “They are the only ones who can change something," he said. “The [football industry] can run without managers, sporting directors, media, owners but without players you cannot play. They alone have the power to do it.”
City could theoretically play a maximum of 76 matches this season, and that’s on top of the four pre-season friendlies they played in the USA in late July and August, after the Euros. On top of club games, most of their players will be involved in international matches.
The world player’s union Fifpro argues there is a “welfare red line” whereby players face risks to their health and careers in playing more than 55 matches per year, which we’ll get to shortly.
An increasing number of others in the game are voicing concern. Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca says “there is no doubt” that some clubs face too many games. Bayern Munich’s manager Vincent Kompany believes there should be a cap imposed on the maximum number of games per player per season.
In this final piece of the “Never-ending season” series today, we’ll examine:
The data that shows how heavy the workload is for top stars.
The evidence that it will take its toll on players, and therefore the quality of the football on offer.
The detailed findings of a FIFPRO report into this subject, and another authoritative study about escalating injuries as the calendar gets more crowded and tournaments start popping up at unusual times of year, such as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar in November and December that year.
The concerns of a coach who has worked at top clubs across many countries and who has specialised for decades in conditioning.
What might happen next: will common sense or cash win the day?