Pep Guardiola has warned that Uefa's decision to forge ahead with an expanded Champions League will have serious consequences for football.
The Manchester City boss backed a call from his player Ilkay Gundogan for football to take a good, hard look at the new proposals, which have been sneaked in this week while the whole of European football was up in arms about the aborted Super League plan.
The elite European competition will be expanded to 36 teams from the 2024-25 season, meaning that clubs will now face ten group games rather than six - and even more controversially will reserve slots for clubs who have not qualified on merit but have a good recent track record in Europe.
The latter smacks of the “closed shop” nature of the Super League which aroused such fury among football fans of all clubs.
But for Gundogan, who tweeted on the subject on Thursday, the increase in the number of games is a serious issue. He wrote: “More and more and more games, is no one thinking about us players?”
Guardiola has long been an advocate of trimming the football calendar, but despairs that everyone in the game is driven by their own self-interest, so Uefa, Fifa, the domestic leagues and the broadcasters are all pursuing their own means and ends.
And he backed Gundogan, feeling that players are being driven to the point of fatigue and injury - and that the football product on offer will be damaged as a result.
“We demand - the managers - to reduce the calendar, protect the players and they do the opposite. I’m not the guy to tell them,” he said. “Premier League, Uefa, Fifa, we give our opinion and we cannot do anything. If they decide more games then there are more games, the show must go on.
“My business is this club, trying to make players better and win titles. Then in the World Cup if they want 56 teams then we’ll have it.”
Guardiola said the inevitable consequence of ploughing ahead with an expanded Champions League, and an expanded World Cup, while still absorbing the new Euro Nations League, will be a calamity for players.
Asked what he fears will happen, he said: “Of course, more injuries. It’s been incredibly tough this season, five or six days off and go to national teams.
“They want to train them and make a good competition. Then they’ll have 10 or 15 days and they go on tour with their clubs. Then the Community Shield and you have to play to win. Every season it’s the same. They play, as they love to play, but the injuries come.
“Uefa know it but do they care? Absolutely not. More games and competitions. We are lucky to be in the Champions League, we are going to play it but it’s a lot, honestly.
“Not one midweek off. I cannot train, I’m not a manager, we handle the players as best as possible. It’s just (watching) videos. I cannot train.
“We did not have time for (football) principles in pre-season. Didn’t have a friendly and no midweeks off. The players went to national teams for three games. It’s crazy but then they play more games.
“The guys not in Champions League or Europa League, they play a new competition (European Conference League), so let’s go. It’s a lot.
“An actor in the theatre, three times a day? Once a day they like it, but three times a day is too much.”
