Real Madrid chief Florentino Perez has accused FIFA and UEFA of causing serious harm to the health of players and disrespecting fans. He said FIFA and UEFA were attacking the fairness of football schedules around the world.
Perez believes that the new versions of the UEFA Champions League and FIFA Club World Cup pose a danger to the welfare of football stars. Real Madrid will be one of the "victims" of the FIFA Club World Cup next year. The tournament will consist of 32 teams and will start on June 15, just three weeks after the final round of La Liga matches.
"The tight schedule affects the health of the players, specifically the constant injuries. UEFA and FIFA arbitrarily added 14 matches to each of their tournaments. It will take the players about 2 and a half months more to complete this volume. This season, we have played 14 matches in La Liga and have had 22 injuries of all kinds" - Perez shared.
In criticizing FIFA and UEFA, Perez cited the global professional footballers' union FIFPro. FIFPro has cited unprecedented statistics on match conditions, mostly due to overcrowding. FIFPro itself has filed a complaint with the European Commission (EC) against FIFA for its unreasonable match schedules.
"Our Real Madrid have suffered seven ACL injuries in the last 12 months. When consulting the doctors, the club received the answer that it was mostly due to fatigue. This year, the schedule is more dense than ever. It is unbelievable that Jude Bellingham has played 251 matches. At his age, David Beckham has only played 51 matches" - Perez shared.
As for FIFA, the organization believes that there is no scientific evidence that playing too much will easily lead to ACL injuries. In parallel with organizing the new version of the Club World Cup, FIFA is also actively adding recommendations and scientific methods to help players protect their health.
In addition to criticizing the high frequency of matches that will harm the health of players, Perez also said that FIFA and UEFA are directly reducing the quality of matches. The head of the Bernabeu stadium also said that FIFA and UEFA are disrespecting the fans.
"FIFA created a new version of the Club World Cup to take away the players' post-season break. As for UEFA, 10 years ago, their official matches were only 488, now it has increased to 769. All this is just for money.
The new version of the Champions League has proven to be not a good solution to improve the tournament, as I had predicted. It only increases quantity but not quality. Tournaments like this only attract fans in the final matches but not the entire tournament" - Perez was upset.
On FIFA's side, the head of the organization, Gianni Infantino, shared that the federation only participates in about 1% of the number of matches involving big teams like Real Madrid. FIFA's argument is that expanding the club level tournaments is to create more playing fields for weaker teams. If big teams participate, it will not take too much time as FIFPro or Perez have criticized in the past.
