According to the latest report, Jurgen Klopp is fed up with the congestive fixtures list and the growing strain put on players nowadays, thus calling for a summit to find a solution amid this scheduling crisis.
The Liverpool boss was left enraged after finding out the date of their Carabao Cup quarter-final tie with Aston Villa, which was initially penned in for December 17. This clashes with their FIFA Club World Cup semi-final game in Qatar on December 18 and while the League Cup clash will be pushed back to an agreed date, the German boss has called for action nonetheless.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Aston Villa, whom they will also face in the Carabao Cup, Klopp called for a summit between the leading managers in world football, FIFA, UEFA, and the CEOs of the big leagues. The former Dortmund tactician argues that the presence of managers, who know all too well about the consequences of the growing demands on players, should be present in order to prevent organizers from merely thinking about their wallets.
“There should be a meeting with five to 10 top managers in the world, FIFA, UEFA, and the CEOs of the big leagues,” said Klopp (as per the Telegraph).
“They discuss it and everyone gets the same vote. No, managers get a double vote! Just to talk about the game again. I am not moaning, I am describing the situation. Nobody sits around a table and discusses it. Everybody is just so happy to have a new competition here and there.”
Had the Reds been forced to play their League Cup game in December, they would have been looking at 11 games in 31 days in the final month of 2019, spanning three countries and two different continents. However, Klopp’s worries exceed the Merseyside giants’ congestive fixtures list ahead of the New Year.
With another Copa America tournament set to be held in 2020 and an expanded FIFA Club World Cup set to be held in China in 2021, Jurgen is stating the obvious: too much is being asked of the modern-day footballer.
“This club World Cup in 2021. What? I don't know for sure but you could have someone in the Champions League final and five days later it starts,” the Liverpool boss added.
“A week after that competition finishes we have the African Nations Cup. How are we going to do that? Do we play the club World Cup without any African players? Fifa would insist they go for two weeks before the tournament starts to train with their international teams. Nobody thinks about it, they just put in another competition.
“In 2020 we have the Copa America again. There was one this year. The schedule for the boys involved in these tournaments is just crazy.
“My job is to deal with it but you cannot deal with it, you just accept it and try to make the best of it. If it continues like this then what direction will it lead? That we have to deal better with it. We already squeeze every minute out of the 10 days we have together in pre-season as it is.
“The situation is clear, there would be a few solutions possible, but there was not one day where FIFA, UEFA, the Premier League, the Football League sit at a table and think about the players and not about their wallet.”
The 2019 Best FIFA Men’s Manager recipient stated that he is not a lone wolf, insisting that several managers in Europe’s top leagues share his belief. One is Pep Guardiola, Klopp’s highly-respected rival at Man City. The Spanish tactician publicly supported his counterpart, arguing that players need more rest to recover.
