This may raise eyebrows during Carlo Ancelotti’s next press conference. According to the Madrid sports daily A.S., the Real Madrid coach has not let up since the successive injuries to Vinicius Junior and Eduardo Camavinga with their respective selections and he intends to make this known to the world authorities during his team’s next pre-match conference, which travels next Saturday to Cadiz in La Liga (6:30 p.m.). The Mister has in fact planned to “severely criticize” the calendar imposed on the national teams by FIFA and UEFA, which he considers simply “delusional”.
Generally speaking, and we keep writing it, the criticisms of coaches and players are no longer isolated and it seems that this protest movement is gaining more and more momentum in the weeks and months to come. . While FIFPRO, the international players’ union, has been denouncing for years the ever crazier overload of calendars and warning of the inherent dangers for the mental and physical health of players, today it is the entire football environment who seems to be truly aware of it.
FIFPRO again criticized in June 2023 the inflation of matches and competitions observed in 2022-2023, with a cobbled together World Cup in the middle of the season. A study by the Howden insurance group even showed that the organization of the World Cup in Qatar in winter was found to be responsible for an increase in the severity of injuries, particularly in the Premier League and Bundesliga.
FIFA and UEFA in the dock
On the players’ side, recently, it was Virgil van Dijk and Aurélien Tchouaméni who took up the torch of protest by admitting to reaching a limit. “It’s up to the authorities to do something. It will be up to us to come together too, to bang our fists on the table. Playing seasons of 70 or 80 games is impossible,” explained the French midfielder from Real Madrid during the October international break, also currently injured since the beginning of November. This weekend, it’s his coach who will do it again.
Enough to bring down the authorities and their appetite for matches (or money)? Unfortunately, there is room for doubt. Because if FIFA compensates clubs whose players were seriously injured with their selection, like Barça who could receive nearly three million euros after the complete rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament in Gavi’s knee with Spain, this is not the response that clubs, players and their coaches expect.