by Bernardo Silva has admitted that he and other top players in European football are beginning to feel burned out by the demanding match schedule, to which FIFA has just added a new 32-team summer Club World Cup in 18 months.
The Manchester City playmaker and winger was speaking ahead of his team’s Club World Cup semi-final against Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night, the last time this competition will be played in its current format. short.
Bernardo said: “I’m not going to lie to you, sometimes I feel tired. All of us also feel tired in some games because we play every three days. We don’t rest. We don’t have Christmas. We don’t have summer. But that is the price you pay for being in a top-level club and fighting for all the competitions and our dream was to play at this level.”
The FIFA Council agreed on the qualification format for the new 32-team Club World Cup to be played every four years starting in June and July 2025. The competition is a major new revenue driver for FIFA as it battles with UEFA, football’s richest governing body. body, for global broadcasting revenues. FIFA has stressed that all clubs have accepted the new format, something that both Bernardo and his coach Pep Guardiola acknowledged.
Bernardo said: “We played and obviously won a lot of money and all that kind of stuff. But in my opinion, for people who love the game and have fun with it, if we have so many games, those games will lose energy, they will lose intensity. That is just my opinion”.
Bernardo added that he was looking forward to the 2025 tournament, no doubt aware that he was at a FIFA event.
Guardiola also expressed concern about the lack of rest that will be given to elite players as the Champions League expands, along with FIFA’s newly expanded World Cup finals, which will feature 48 teams. starting from the 2026 edition.
“I think FIFA made a decision and all the clubs support it,” Guardiola said. “I am part of the clubs. What I would say is that when I was little I didn’t organize the competition. Not when I was a teenager, not a soccer player, and not now either.”
He was reluctant to openly criticize the new Club World Cup but expressed concerns about the possible effect on players.
“I am not against new competitions. I am against the lack of time to recover between years [seasons]. This is what I’m complaining about. For me it doesn’t matter playing every three days, six days, seven days. Alright. But it is very, very difficult to finish the season and in three weeks you have to restart it again.”
He said the game had to examine the burden it placed on players. Especially the summers that required them to “go to Asia to be financially stable.” [earn extra revenue from summer tours], or go to the United States, or wherever. “It is very hard for me, but especially for the players and I think this should change.”
The new 32-team tournament, involving Premier League sides City and Chelsea, will be played after international matches following the end of the 2024-2025 season, and will require a new call-up of club teams. participants. Guardiola suggested that City players would take their families to the United States, where the 2025 tournament will be played. They will play seven games if they reach the final.
FIFA has signed an agreement with the European Club Association (ECA), the key body representing Europe’s top clubs, guaranteeing its support for the new tournament. Without it, the new Club World Cup would not have been possible.
However, global players’ union Fifpro launched a scathing attack on the plan this week. Fifpro, which had a representative at the FIFA Council meeting in Jeddah on Sunday, said the new tournament risked “burnout, physical injuries, mental health issues, decreased performance and risks to career longevity.” “.
The tournament has attracted strong opposition from domestic leagues across Europe, especially the Premier League, which sees FIFA as direct competition for lucrative broadcast contracts. The Premier League is also concerned about the impact on player welfare.
Although its main clubs authorize the ECA to accept the plans (and identify the potential to add a new source of income), the executive does not share the opinion of the clubs. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters is one of several European league executives who signed a letter of complaint from the World Leagues Forum, which represents 44 major domestic leagues around the world.
Guardiola has won the Club World Cup twice before with Barcelona, but this is the first time City have played the competition in any of its formats. First they must beat the Urawa Reds, who defeated Club León of Mexico, champion of the Concacaf region of North and Central America. The J-League team finished fourth in Japan this season, but triumphed in the Asian Football Confederation Champions League. The final will be on Friday night, when City’s semi-final winners will face South American champions Fluminense of Brazil, who defeated Egypt’s Al Ahly 2-0 in Monday’s semi-final.
Guardiola said his team’s indifferent Premier League form (seven points from the last 18) would not affect this match. “It will be completely different,” he said. “We would prefer better results. Against Villa our performance was excellent. We have to improve how we finish games and be aware of what we have to do at certain times. Hopefully we can maintain our level of passion and desire with and without the ball.”
Asked if City could still put together long winning streaks, Bernardo responded with his own question: “Do you doubt us?” He added: “We will see what happens in May when it arrives. Let’s see where we are. I’m not going to say we will. I will say that [since he has been at the club] we have won five out of six [Premier League titles]. We cannot say that this team is not capable of having a good run.”
City have been fined £120,000 for their players surrounding referee Simon Hooper during their defeat to Tottenham Hotspur this month after he failed to take advantage of an advantage that would have favored Jack Grealish. City admitted the Football Association’s charge and the fine was set by an independent commission.
