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Jürgen Klopp Calls on Football Authorities to Put Player Welfare Before Their Wallets

Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp has called on FIFA, UEFA, the FA and the rest of football's leading authorities to come together and come up with a solution to the hectic fixture scheduling that he says is unfair on the game's top professionals. 


Having ​progressed into the next round of the Carabao Cup at the expense of Arsenal, Klopp's side could face as many as ten competitive matches in December, with the FIFA Club World Cup semi-final pencilled in for just one day after their EFL Cup tie at Aston Villa. 

It comes off the back of a summer break that saw the likes of Jordan Henderson, ​Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mané and a cusp of Klopp's other top players go without a prolonged break due to various international commitments, such as the UEFA Nations League. 

“People will say: ‘Why is he moaning? He earns so much money’ but everyone involved in the game would tell you that [the demands are too great] and you know it as well," Klopp said, as quoted by the ​Guardian. . 

​“The FA wants to touch the League Cup, the Football League wants to touch the FA Cup, but nobody really wants to discuss it. Then, on top of that, UEFA decides to make the Nations League to give the boys who are already pretty busy another couple of intense games. 


"If you are an international player and play all the big competitions in the world, then you have two weeks per year off. That’s a fact.

“Two weeks for the Manés, the Salahs, the Hendersons; all these guys have two weeks off a year. In a physically demanding job with pressure as well – we cannot say: ‘This game is not important, or this game we don’t have to play really’ – that’s the situation.

"There would be a few solutions possible but there was not one day where FIFA, UEFA, the ​Premier League, the Football League and the other leagues sit at a table and think about the players and not about their wallet.”

Klopp isn't the only manager to have hit out at fixture-scheduling recently, with Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola ​furious with the schedule his side was handed by the Premier League in the run-in last year.

He'll hope that tiredness isn't a factor when the Reds attempt to maintain their six point lead at the top of the Premier League table, away at Aston Villa.

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Source : 90min