Celtic chairman Peter Lawwell has called on football organisations to assess the fixture calendar over the coming years as competitions and tournaments expand both at club and international levels.
Lawwell, who is also a vice-chairman of the European Club Association, reckons that the schedule is already ‘more than maxed out’ and could have an impact on player welfare.
The World Cup is due to expand to 48 teams in 2026, adding even more games for players to navigate. With the UEFA Champions League also having an enlarged group stage next term, we’re rapidly running out of room to fit everything in.
Lawwell said [BBC Sport]: “It seems to me we have pushed it that bit too far, particularly with the new World Cup and the restart dates. Between now and then we must come up with a process that covers everything in terms of player welfare, time on the pitch and time in training.
“We have probably more than maxed out. It has got to a situation where it is impossible to expect high-quality performances from elite athletes over so many games in a year. Something has to be done.”
As discussed on 67 Hail Hail previously, these are concerns that have been raised by player union organisations such as FIFPRO. At some stage, plans have to be put in place to address the issue. Clubs and national associations have to work together.
ECA chief executive Charlie Marshall said to the BBC, echoing Lawwell: “How you manage player health and safety is going to come down to more sophisticated collaboration. We have to move away from the traditional interaction between national teams and clubs, which is that the players go away and you don’t know anything about what happens until they come back.
“We want to encourage much more trust, collaboration, science and objectivity when it comes to the management of player injury, so that sensible rotation of players, in the interests of either side, actually becomes a possibility.
“We want to see coaches look more sophisticatedly at squad rotation, particularly maybe in some of the less important games to try and achieve something that makes the calendar we are faced with a bit more healthy.”
All of this impacts on Celtic. In years we’ve had European qualifiers, our players have made beyond 60 appearances for the club and played multiple matches for their country. Stars such as Callum McGregor rank highly globally when comes to minutes played in a calendar year.
A rethink is required and it seems Lawwell is intent on being a leading voice on the issue.