December 19 – Manchester City’s Portuguese forward Bernardo Silva has warned that the expanded Club World Cup will take a heavy toll on elite players, saying the number of games they have to play has reached “crazy” proportions.
Silva (pictured) is the latest star to criticise FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s pet project saying European football will pay a heavy price quality-wise for a punishing match calendar that will include a new 32-team CWC in 18 months’ time.
He was speaking ahead of City’s semi-final against Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan in Saudi Arabia tonight – the last time the competition is being played in its current form in the shorter format.
“I am not going to lie, sometimes I feel tired. All of us, we feel tired for some games as well because we play every three days. We don’t rest. We have no Christmas. We have no summer,” said Silva. “But that’s the price you pay for being at a top club and fighting for all competitions and our dream was to play at this level.”
The expanded tournament is scheduled to take place every four years starting in June and July of 2025. In between the European Champions League winners will play a one-off final against the winners of the new, annual, Intercontinental Cup competition played between the winners of other confederations’ club titles.
“We obviously earn a lot of money, and all these kinds of things. But in my opinion – for the people who love the game and are entertained by the game, if we have this many games, those games will lose the energy, will lose the intensity. It’s just my opinion,” Silva added.
“The reality is that the amount of games we have nowadays, and even more with the new competitions, it’s a bit crazy because of the [lack of] rest players get, and then the risk of injuries goes up quite a lot.”
City manager Pep Guardiola isn’t against the expansion as such but the lack of preparation time.
“I am not against new competitions. I am against the lack of time to recover between seasons. This is what I’m complaining about,” he said.
“For me it doesn’t matter to play every three days, six days, seven days. It is OK. But it is really, really tough to finish the season and in three weeks you have to restart again.”
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