Starting with the 2024–2025 season, there will be 189 matches in the new UEFA Champions League format, up from the previous 125.
In a joint statement, FIFPRO Europe and European Leagues declared their plans to lodge a protest against FIFA about the match schedule with the European Commission. “The international match schedule is currently oversaturated, unsustainable for national leagues, and dangerous for players’ health. In a joint statement published on X, FIFA stated that “its decisions over the last years have repeatedly harmed the economic interests of national leagues and the welfare of players, neglected its responsibilities as a governing body, and favoured its own competitions and commercial interests.”
The new FIFA Club World Cup and the UEFA Champions League structure will have a significant impact on all participating players because of the dynamic and ever-changing nature of sport. under addition to the home responsibilities, there will be 189 matches under the new UCL format as opposed to 125. Rather than six or seventeen games, each side will play a minimum of eight.
The only reasonable course of action left for European leagues and player unions to safeguard football, its ecology, and its workers against FIFA’s arbitrary rulings is to take legal action. The statement went on to say, “The lawsuit will clarify how FIFA’s actions violate EU competition law and specifically amount to an abuse of power.
In addition, the FIFA Club World Cup participant list has grown historically, which has added to the team’s already full schedule of games. With the incidence of ACL injuries in the men’s and women’s games already on the rise during the 2023–24 season, adding international commitments to the present schedule puts the players in grave danger.
“FIFA is not only the body that oversees football worldwide, but it also organizes competitions. Due to the conflict of interest this causes, FIFA must carry out its regulatory responsibilities in a transparent, impartial, non-discriminatory, and proportionate manner in accordance with current EU Court case law. The statement stated, “FIFA’s conduct regarding the schedule of international matches falls well short of these requirements.”
