Chelsea and Manchester City will not be given space to start the 2025-26 Premier League season later if they get to the final of the expanded Club World Cup, despite a break of potentially just 33 days and minimal pre-season.
The Premier League’s Chief Football Officer Tony Scholes said this is simply down to the fact the “calendar is squeezed as much as it can be”, as he attributed the issue to a problem “imposed upon us, particularly by Fifa”.
