Stress in football: Klopp’s hit is more relevant than ever – sport

It was a familiar sound that could be heard coming out of Liverpool these days. John, Paul, George and Ringo also played their hits over and over again, as does Jürgen Klopp. And one of his most popular plays is titled “Too Many Games” and is about overload.

For years, Klopp has been at press conferences in an angry long-distance duel with Uefa, Fifa, FA, Premier League and basically every football association and official who sees the expansion of the football calendar as an opportunity to do something good for the sport and its protagonists. The Winter World Cup in Qatar this year gives him reason for particularly clear formulations, which makes Klopp “sour”: “It needs a meeting where everyone (associations, note) sit at a table, and the only issue should be the players.” They are the ones who suffer, it’s the same as with the global climate: “We all know that we have to change something, but nobody is willing to ask what. “

Klopp’s statements touch on an important point in the international football business that will determine this autumn. In a way, his hit is more relevant than ever. A look at the calendar is enough to understand the madness of the end of 2022, which Liverpool FC, for example, has to deal with. From the start of the Champions League on September 6th, English weeks will take place without a break, followed by the 16th matchday in the Premier League on November 12th. Eight days later, the World Cup begins in Qatar – and just eight days after the World Cup final, the traditional and therefore extremely lucrative Boxing Day game day on December 26 awaits (followed by two more game days over the New Year). The winter break of the Bundesliga until well into January, on the other hand, almost seems like an exaggerated rehabilitation measure.

It would be healthier for everyone involved if the football calendar eased up instead of tightening further

There is no doubt that the players are facing a complete overload of the calendar – the only question is whether they also have a strategic interest in it. Klopp said self-critically that as a coach he was also part of the system that demanded a lot from the players. Because despite all the longing for more protection and fewer games: Every footballer also benefits from more game days, although not in terms of health, of course. But on the account.

Criticism of the game plan design echoes from the association world with the eternal echo that more and more games are just the way to constantly enlarge the cake that everyone likes to eat their fill of. This is mainly done by players (and their advisors) who have been able to claim record salaries for years, receive absurd bonuses and are hardly willing to give up – a lesson from the pandemic period. Incidentally, calls for a waiver were particularly loud in England, where even today the suggestion that Boxing Day be canceled to protect the players and that, conversely, their December salaries would be reduced, would probably cause indignation.

Klopp is absolutely right: it would be healthier for everyone involved if the football calendar were to relax instead of tightening further. However, this requires not only the associations, but both him and his players to realize that the football business cannot detach itself from the principles of the market economy: those who are already earning more than ever before and want it to increase every year cannot simply expect to have to do less for it.

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