A new report is calling for all professional footballers to be given at least eight weeks to rest and retrain between seasons, as well as a minimum one-week mid-season break.
The call for minimum protections to be introduced worldwide comes as some of the world’s top stars prepare to take part in the newly-expanded FIFA Club World Cup in the United States, which starts on Saturday.
The tournament does not end until 13 July, meaning Manchester City and Chelsea players could have a gap of just over a month before the new Premier League season kicks off on 16 August.
That is two weeks less than the minimum off-season rest and retraining period a group of 70 medical and performance experts have recommended in a new study.
England head coach Thomas Tuchel said earlier this week that the demands placed on City and Chelsea by the Club World Cup will hand a "huge advantage" to Liverpool and Arsenal in next season’s Premier League title race.
The European division of world players’ union FIFPRO and Europe’s leagues have taken legal action against FIFA over what they see as a lack of consultation by the game’s global governing body over the fixture calendar.
The scheduling of the Club World Cup within that calendar has been described as a “tipping point” in the debate by Premier League chief executive Richard Masters.
The expert group has put forward 12 ‘position statements’ on player welfare as part of the Delphi Study, which they feel should be adopted worldwide as minimum welfare standards.
These included a mandatory four-week off-season break, and within that, a two-week blackout period where clubs and national teams should have no contact at all with players.
There should then be a minimum four-week retraining period after the off-season break before resuming competitive football. Mid-season breaks should last a minimum of one week, experts said.
Premier League players will not benefit from any mid-season break next season, as was the case in 2024-25. A pause was introduced in the 2019-20 season but was dropped before the start of the season just ended, due to the expansion of international competitions like UEFA’s Champions League, Europa League and Conference League.
The 12 position statements were agreed with the consensus of at least 75 per cent of the experts involved. Among the other statements were calls for mandatory consideration of the travel burden on players and the impact of long-haul flights, as well as specific workload safeguards for under-18 players.
Dr Vincent Gouttebarge, the medical director of FIFPRO, said: “This study presents safety standards based on the considered and independent opinions of medical and performance experts working in professional football who understand the mental and physical strain placed on players.
“If we can all agree that health comes first, then we should take steps to implement these safeguards.”
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