“We must focus on reducing football match overload. It is not healthy for the players, who are human beings, not machines. We need more time to rest and recover.” This was told by Xavi.
Pedri: A Case Study in Football Match Overload
The reason I wanted to write this article is because of one player—Pedri, the Barcelona and Spanish national team player who, during the 2020-21 season, was severely affected by football match overload due to the excessive number of games he played. He played jaw dropping seventy-three games during that time. Prior to that season he had not missed any time due to injury. Post 2020-21 season, he became injury prone, and his talent often gets shadowed by the number of injuries he gets. I saw one comparison picture of Pedri before and after the seventy-three games he played. It is just so sad that he had to play that much that he looked 40+ while being just in his teens. This case shows a clear failures of the RFEF in failing to address the issue of reducing football match overload. Despite all this he won the EURO 2020 Young Player of the Tournament.
The Physical Toll of Excessive Matches
Let us talk about the top five leagues because that is more prevalent. All these so called “Professional Leagues” squeeze up so many fixtures in one calendar season accommodating 3-4 domestic titles and then the actual league which sometimes have three matches in one week! On top of that you have some fixtures with the national team as well. They add up the Nations League, Euros or the Olympics which shorten the annual holidays for these professional players.
The Impact of Overload on Player Longevity
This is not just about the players getting less rest or some other thing but what these excess usage of players does is also reduce the skill and fitness level of them. Therefore, these in turn result in players retiring early due to their levels deteriorating because of football match overload.
FIFA and the Commercialization of Football
FIFA are exploiting the players just for them to generate more revenue by keeping matches outside their usual regions like having Pre-Season matches in the USA and having Winter Cups in the Middle East. Travelling and less rest leads them to their poor performances and affects their mental health. There was a report by FIFPRO regarding how World Cup players were experiencing mental and physical fatigue. This shows how serious the problem is!
Solutions: Reducing Football Match Overload
In conclusion, the excessive number of matches in a football calendar leads to serious risks to the physical and mental well-being of players. To preserve the decorum of Football, it is essential for the organizations like FIFA and domestic leagues to reduce the number of matches and give enough warmup and cooling down time. This would not only allow players to get enough rest and recover but also ensure that the quality of the game remains high by not leading to football match overload, benefiting both the players and fans.