Bernardo Silva has admitted that he and other leading players in European football are starting to feel exhausted by the punishing fixture list - to which FIFA has just added a new 32-team Summer Club World Cup in 18 months' time.
The Manchester City playmaker and winger was speaking ahead of his team's Club World Cup semi-final against Japan's Urawa Red Diamonds in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday evening - the last time the competition will be played in its current shorter format.
Silva said: "I'm not going to lie, sometimes I feel tired. We are all also tired at some games because we play every three days. We do not rest. We don't have Christmas. We don't have summer. But that's the price you pay when you play for a top club and fight for all competitions. Our dream was to play at this level."
The FIFA Council has agreed on the qualifying format for the new 32-team Club World Cup, which will be played every four years from June and July 2025. The competition is an important new source of revenue for FIFA as it battles the UEFA, the richest football government. body, for worldwide broadcast revenues. FIFA has emphasized that all clubs have agreed to the new format, which Silva and his manager Pep Guardiola both acknowledged.
Silva said: "We play and we obviously make a lot of money, and all this stuff. But in my opinion - for the people who love the game and enjoy it, if we have so many games, those games will lose the energy and the intensity. It's just my opinion."
Silva added that he was looking forward to the 2025 tournament, no doubt knowing he was at a FIFA event.
Guardiola also raised concerns about the lack of rest elite players would get as the Champions League expands along with FIFA's newly expanded World Cup finals, which will feature 48 teams from the 2026 edition.
"I think FIFA has made a decision and all clubs support that decision," Guardiola said. "I am part of the clubs. What I would say is that as a little boy I didn't organize the competition. Not a football player when I was a teenager, and not now either."
The story continues
He was reluctant to criticize the new Club World Cup outright, but he did express concerns about the likely impact on players.
"I am not against new competitions. I'm against the lack of time to recover between years [seasons]. This is what I'm complaining about. For me it doesn't matter to play every three days, six days, seven days. It's OK. But it is really difficult to finish the season and in three weeks you have to start again."
He said the game needed to examine the burden it placed on players. Especially summers when they 'had to go to Asia to be financially stable [earn extra revenue from summer tours], or go to the United States, or wherever. It is very hard for myself, but especially for the players and I think this has to change."
The new 32-team tournament, which will feature Premier League side City and Chelsea, will be played after the international matches that will follow at the end of the 2024-2025 season - and will require a reshuffle of the participating squads clubs. Guardiola suggested City's players would take their families to the US, where the 2025 tournament will be played. If they reach the final, they will play seven matches.
FIFA has signed an agreement with the European Club Association (ECA) - the main body representing Europe's leading clubs - securing their support for the new tournament. Without that, the new Club World Cup would not have been possible. Nevertheless, the global unifying players' union, Fifpro, this week launched a scathing attack on the plan. Fifpro, which had a representative at the FIFA Council meeting in Jeddah on Sunday, said the new tournament posed the risk of "exhaustion, physical injuries, mental health problems, reduced performance and risks to career longevity".
The tournament has attracted strong opposition from domestic leagues across Europe, especially the Premier League, which FIFA sees as direct competition for lucrative broadcasting contracts. The Premier League is also concerned about the impact on player welfare.
Although the leading clubs give the ECA permission to agree to the plans - and identify the potential to add a new revenue stream - the clubs' view is not shared by the executive. Premier League chief executive Richard Masters is one of several European league executives to sign a letter of complaint from the World Leagues Forum, which represents 44 of the major domestic leagues around the world.
Guardiola has won the Club World Cup twice before with Barcelona, but this is the first time City have played in the competition in any form. They must first beat the Urawa Reds, who beat Mexico's Club León, champions of the North and Central American Concacaf region. The J-League team finished fourth in Japan this season but triumphed in the Asian Football Confederation's Champions League. The final is on Friday evening, when City's semi-final winners will face South American champions Fluminense of Brazil, who defeated Egypt's Al Ahly 2-0 in the semi-final on Monday.
Guardiola said his team's indifferent Premier League form - seven points from the last 18 - would have no bearing on this match. "It will be completely different," he said. "We would prefer to see better results. Our performance against Villa was excellent. We need to improve the way we finish matches and be aware of what we need to do at certain times. Hopefully we can maintain our level of passion and desire, with and without the ball."
Asked if City can still put together long winning runs, Bernardo responded with a question of his own: "Are you doubting us?" He added: "We'll see what happens in May when the time comes. Let's see where we are. I'm not going to say we will. I'll say that [since he has been at the club] we won five out of six [Premier League titles]. We can't say this team isn't capable of making a good run."
City have been fined £120,000 for their players surrounding referee Simon Hooper during their defeat to Tottenham Hotspur this month after he failed to play an advantage that would have favored Jack Grealish. City admitted the Football Association's accusation and the fine was determined by an independent commission.
