Bernardo Silva has warned football may pay a heavy price for the expansion of the Club World Cup to 32 teams from 2025 onwards, saying the quality of matches will dip amid an increasingly unmanageable workload and admitting the fixture list’s demands already leave him feeling tired.
Manchester City will face the Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds in Jeddah on Tuesday night as they begin their bid to be crowned world champions of the club game. They enter a seven-team tournament at the semi-final stage having flown overnight following their draw with Crystal Palace on Saturday; recovery time is limited enough on this occasion but their participation in the 2025 tournament, already guaranteed, will involve a summer in the US and up to seven fixtures.
“We were not consulted but we try to do our job,” Silva said when asked whether players had been given a say in the decision. “The reality is that the amount of games we have nowadays, and even more with the new competitions, it’s a bit crazy because of the [lack of] rest players get, and then the risk of injuries goes up quite a lot.
“In my opinion, for people who love the game, if we have this many games for so long, in the end the games will lose the energy, will lose the intensity. I think [the expanded Club World Cup] is a top competition so no complaints, but the amount of games and the [schedule] we have nowadays makes it complicated to be fit all the time and for our energy levels to be proper to play well.
“I am not going to lie, sometimes I feel tired. We play every three days, we don’t rest. We have no Christmas, we have no summer. But that’s the price you pay for being at a top club and fighting for all competitions, and in the end our dream was to play at this level.”
Pep Guardiola stopped short of criticising the expansion – of which the City chief executive, Ferran Soriano, was a proponent – but took aim more generally at a lack of recovery time between seasons. “Fifa took a decision and all the clubs support that decision,” he said. “I am part of the clubs. I am not against new competitions. I am against the lack of time to recover year by year. This is what I’m complaining about.
“For me it doesn’t matter to play every three days, six days, seven days. But it is really, really tough to finish the season and in three weeks you have to restart again and go to Asia [for pre-season] to be financially stable, or go to the States, or wherever. It’s really tough for myself but especially for the players and I think this should change.”
Kevin De Bruyne, who has not played for City since 11 August, completed training on Monday and should be given playing time this week. Erling Haaland, still nursing a foot injury, travelled to Jeddah but is yet to train and his involvement in either of City’s games appears highly doubtful.
City, who have spluttered domestically with a run of one win in six games, were fined £120,000 on Monday by the Football Association after their players surrounded the referee Simon Hooper at the end of their 3-3 draw with Spurs on 3 December.
