Premier League chief warns of football ‘saturation’ with Club World Cup expansion

Chief executive Richard Masters is ‘concerned’ about Fifa’s decision to add more matches to the football calendar

Premier League CEO, Richard Masters, believes football calendar is at risk of saturation. (Steven Paston/PA Wire)

Premier League chief executive Richard Masters believes football is in danger of “saturation”, as he said it’s still “not clear” what Fifa want to do with the calendar. The competition have already signalled they are willing to take legal action against the global governing body as part of a group of interests protesting the potential imposition of the new 32-team Club World Cup next summer, although Masters insisted they are “open to discuss it with them”.

The Premier League’s major issue is how, in contrast to the controversial expansion of the Champions League, such stakeholders don’t feel like they have been made part of the decision-making process. There is instead the ongoing feeling within the game that football is just developing into one endless calendar, leading to the physical fatigue of players but also the possible psychological fatigue of spectators. It was in this context that Masters referenced “saturation”.

The Independent has previously reported how many players felt that Euro 2024 came around too soon, diminishing its grandeur for them, and the current plan for the Club World Cup is that it will run from 15 June to 13 July in 2025, starting just 15 days after the Champions League final in Munich. There are currently no other firm details about the competition - including venues - so the situation remains up in the air, which is why Masters also spoke of how so much is “unclear”.

As one consequence, though, the Premier League will this season not be able to allow a January off-week for players.

“It’s a really difficult thing to predict when saturation takes hold,” the Premier League chief executive said at a briefing ahead of the start of the new season on Friday. “Obviously we have lots of football and the Premier League is part of it. As part of the picture, part of the picture of supporting your club, clubs participate in multiple competitions and we’re adding to that calendar. So it should be a concern. I think that we will reach a point of saturation, yes.”

Fifa want to expand the Club World Cup and organise a month-long tournament in 2025. (EPA)

Figures within Fifa have complained that such thinking does not extend to the Premier League clubs’ own trips to the US as part of pre-season, let alone the issues with a greatly expanded Champions League. Masters did state that those tours are “a really important part of pre-season” and “protective” to the players to ensure they can “walk over the white line on a Saturday”. While he admitted they “may not like every aspect” of Uefa’s expansion of the Champions League from 32 to 36 teams, they were able to impact decisions and were consulted, which is unlike the Club World Cup.

“Well, I think it’s worth saying that it’s not clear what is really going on at Fifa, that something has changed, but it hasn’t been clear yet.

“What we are principally concerned with is not necessarily the decisions, we’re concerned about the process within which they are taken. The leagues and the players unions, either players and the leagues that register those players and develop those players, are not properly - if at all - consulted in relation to big global calendar decisions like the Club World Cup and that’s what we think needs significantly addressing with Fifa.

“We’re open to discuss it with them and obviously we have indicated that we will take action, that’s as a group of leagues and players unions acting in concert, at some point in the future. So the case hasn’t been lodged yet.”

When asked whether the Premier League would prefer for there to be no expanded Club World Cup at all, Masters said:

“No, that’s not necessarily the outcome. What we want is the proper process which will lead to better decisions about scheduling. The issue is the Club World Cup is a month long and it ends in the middle of July and it’s not a national team competition where you have a sprinkling of players from different clubs and that can be accommodated at the start of a season.

“If our clubs get to the final of those competitions, what sort of teams are they going to be able to field at the start of the Premier League season when we have an obligation to the players to give them three weeks rest, which they won’t get? So, in the end it doesn’t add up and so a new accommodation has to be reached.

“The Club World Cup is a relevant competition that should be able to develop in its own way but not at the expense of other people’s competitions.”