Jurgen Klopp made a passionate presentation to the Premier League, suggesting that it was inhuman to risk the welfare and health of players with such an intense festive football programme.
The Liverpool manager has long campaigned to get football’s authorities to change schedules to reflect modern medical science, which suggests it is impossible to recover physically after the stress of matches, in less than 72 hours.
Klopp made two key points in his recommendations to the Premier League officials:
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The Christmas tradition of Boxing Day and Dec 28th games is ‘inhuman’ and must go, and schedules should allow a minimum of 72 hours between fixtures.
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Clubs must be completely transparent relating to Covid cases, offering full information to the Premier League and to opponents, allowing preparation and planning, and also appropriate safety measures to be implemented.
Liverpool also joined other clubs in suggesting that during the current wave of Omnicron cases, the Premier League should return to using five substitutes, as they did during the first wave of Covid.
They argued that would allow clubs to better manage the workload and physical demands on players, and dramatically reduce the risk of injury.
Klopp spoke about the medical advice behind playing hours, and made clear the data supports a gap of four days between matches.
In the past he has called the practice of playing two games in two days “insane”, stating: “None of the managers have a problem playing on Boxing Day, but playing on the 26th and 28th is a crime.
“It is absolutely not OK in this day and age that we still have it. The body needs a specific amount of time to go again. That is science. But we ignore that completely.
“There is no reason why more teams do not get more than 48 hours between a Premier League game.
“Obviously we can say what we want but no-one is listening.”
