AT THE LIMIT PLAYER WORKLOAD IN ELITE PROFESSIONAL MEN’S FOOTBALL IT’S A CRAZY SCHEDULE AND IT IS GOING TO KILL OUR PLAYERS! WE CANNOT SUSTAIN THAT FOR A LONG TIME (...) THEY HAVE TO IF WE DON’T LEARN TO DEAL BREATHE AND REST TO PERFORM WITH OUR PLAYERS IN A BETTER BETTER IN TOURNAMENTS. WAY, COMPETITION-WISE... THEY HAVE TO REST! WE WILL KILL THE BEAUTIFUL Pep Guardiola, Press Conference, GAME. WITHOUT THE PLAYER, Manchester City FC Pre-season Tour of Asia, 23/07/19 THE GAME IS NOT A GOOD ONE. Jurgen Klopp, Press Conference, Liverpool FC v. Wolverhampton Wanderers, 10/05/19 ON THE LIMIT 03 ABOUT THE REPORT WELCOME TO THE FIFPRO REPORT ON PLAYER WORKLOAD IN ELITE PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL. AT This report provides players’ perspectives of their workload from club and country duties. The report builds on previous FIFPRO medical reports and player surveys. Additional scientific findings concerning the exposure of THE LIMIT players to excessive workload and insufficient rest is also taken into account. Our industry’s evolution has been accelerating and PLAYER WORKLOAD IN so have competition reforms. As a consequence of these reforms the international match calendar has ELITE PROFESSIONAL become denser. The game is faster, more physical and more global than ever. Although the demands MEN’S FOOTBALL on players are increasing, their physical and psychological capacity has natural limits. This puts not only their health and therefore career prospects at risk but threatens to diminish their CONTENTS peak sporting performance and as a result the quality of competitions. Our research focuses on football’s fast-changing competition landscape from an elite player’s perspective – those who compete 04 WELCOME at an international level for their club and national 07 TOP FINDINGS team - and formulates key policies and regulatory responses based on health and safety concerns. 08 RECOMMENDATIONS Our objective is to protect players and to safeguard 10 THE OVERLOAD OF ELITE PLAYERS sporting excellence. The report uses a number of player case studies to showcase how competition 12 THE EXPOSURE OF ELITE PLAYERS calendars and travel requirements clash with 14 PLAYER WORKLOAD IN PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL scientific best practice, leaving some elite players on the limit of their mental and physical capacity. 16 MEDICAL EVIDENCE & GUIDELINES 18 COMPETITION REFORMS & MATCH CALENDARS 21 STATISTICS AND DATA INFORM ON PLAYER WORKLOAD Factual, evidence-based and player-centred policy 36 FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS development to safeguard the rights and interests of professionals at the heart of the game. ENGAGE Provide the industry, policy makers, influencers and media with trustworthy analyses and proposals about the workload of elite players in an evolving competition landscape for professional football players worldwide. EMPOWER ABOUT FIFPRO Players are central to the evolution of football FIFPRO – Football Players Worldwide – is the global and are needed to shape the international representative organisation for all professional match calendar and design of club and national football players; more than 65.000 football players competitions. in total, male and female. 04 AT THE LIMIT 05 PUTTING THERE ARE MORE AND PLAYER MORE COMPETITIONS AND HEALTH & GAMES, AND MORE PHYSICAL PERFORMANCE AND EMOTIONAL STRESS FIRST FOR PLAYERS. RUI PATRICIO | PORTUGAL PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL IS ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SECTORS OF THE GLOBAL SPORT & This report outlines the solutions to the ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. problems it clearly identifies: 1 Develop strong standards to limit It is the players who make our game special, and manage player workload and and who captivate millions of people sporting performance, such as in around the world. The findings showcase transformation of competitions and the top few hundred players in the world are and off-season breaks, minimum rest periods between matches and mitigation how professional football must protect its subsequently increased the players’ workload. being drained by an overload of competitions, of long-distance travel. most important actors – the players – for the Today, the workload of professional elite thousands of their colleagues are offered sake of their health and the game itself. players looks nothing like it did 20 years ago. too few playing opportunities to shape a 2 Restructure the (international) lasting career. match calendar, before developing and Welcome to the 2019 report on player As new forces transform our societies, it has adding new fixtures that would further Professional football needs a more workload. There are a limited number of elite become clear that professional football will increase player workload. not remain isolated from these changes. sustainable approach. More structural athletes whose talents light up our sport. 3 changes to the way competitions are Respect minimum rest and call up periods Their careers are short, intense and fragile Technological improvements and emerging organised are on their way, but safeguards before and after matches and tournaments. thus creating a vital responsibility for all audiences, on a regional and global scale, to promote healthy, dynamic and fair 4 stakeholders to protect the short and long- create new revenue streams and ultimately Develop enforcement mechanisms to career development are still lacking. term health of players and to sustain their accelerate the transformation of the design guarantee the harmonised application of ability for elite sporting performance. and format of our competitions. Recent player health protection measures. reforms to national team and international PUTTING PLAYERS AND 5 Recognise the joint responsibility The report focuses on the experiences of club competition formats are testament to PERFORMANCE FIRST and interest of all international football several hundred players at the peak of our sport this evolution. But as rights holders protect Governing bodies, leagues, and clubs stakeholders in the protection of players – those representing their club domestically their competitions and strive to reach new must place more importance on the while designing competition formats and internationally, as well as playing for their audiences, they create challenges not just for protection of players’ health and sporting and match calendars. national team. It showcases how the structural the players’ workload but also risk inflicting performance during future competitions. changes in competition formats are impacting damage to sporting performance. Managing competition reforms requires a clear Current discussions on the future of the workload of professional players around commitment to our players’ health and welfare competitions need to prioritise a reform the world. It provides the player’s perspective - particularly between competition organisers THE PLAYERS MAKE of international and domestic match regarding developing sustainable solutions and player associations. OUR GAME WHAT IT IS calendars to stress the protection of and cites scientific evidence for appropriate Moreover, The current match calendar at the players’ health. First and foremost this The findings and recommendations laid regulatory solutions. top end of professional football increases the requires a mandatory framework to protect out in this report create a platform for open risks of damaging a sustainable and healthy players’ rest and recovery periods during consultation between all stakeholders to create THE IMPACT ON MATCH career path, impacting sporting excellence. and after the sporting season. It also practical and implementable safeguards for CALENDARS AND WORKLOAD At the same time, thousands of players requires further scrutiny of fundamental players’ health and performance. Competitions and their formats at national and hundreds of professional clubs do not sport and employment rules such as club and international level have drastically have adequate resources to compete in a size and squad selection. Increasing the changed since the inception of professional meaningful way in the international football number of fixtures must be accompanied football, heavily influenced by economic environment. The drive towards maximum by safeguards to manage the load for and financial interests. The privatisation and concentration of resources of the top end individual players. Most professional team commercialisation of television networks of the game thus undermines working and sports other than football have better Theo van Seggelen in the 1980s and 1990s accelerated the playing opportunities across football. While protections to manager player workload. FIFPro Secretary General 06 AT THE LIMIT 07 TOP FINDINGS 4 SEASON BREAKS AND DETRAINING PERIODS WHAT THE ARE CUT SHORT The cumulative effect of competitions and a packed match CURRENT PLAYER calendar not only cuts rest and recovery periods, but eats into vital season breaks and detraining WORKLOAD TELLS periods for elite players. 5 ELITE NON-EUROPEANS US ABOUT HEALTH, TRAVEL TOO MUCH, WITHOUT EXTRA REST PERFORMANCE & Due to the global nature of the game, players cross many time-zones for international matches and do not get COMPETITIONS the additional rest recommendend by medical experts. 6 CONTINUOUS 1 IN EXTREME CASES, PLAYERS PARTICIPATE COMPETITION CYCLES IN ALMOST 80 ENDANGER CAREERS GAMES PER YEAR Players start their careers at the top international level at an ever younger These players take part in more age and are exposed to continuous than double the amount of games than periods of match overload. Within