Arsene Wenger asserts that FIFA’s expanded Club World Cup has the potential to truly globalize football and should be considered beyond a European perspective.
The 32-team tournament is set to kick off in 2025, featuring 12 European clubs, including Manchester City and Chelsea.
Both the global players’ union, Fifpro, and Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola have raised concerns about the proposed plans.
However, Wenger, Fifa’s chief of global football development, says it is “a chance for other clubs to progress”.
After advocating for the concept of a biennial World Cup, which ultimately faced significant resistance and was abandoned, the Frenchman is now seeking strategies to elevate all confederations to a level of strength comparable to Europe’s UEFA.
“The positive impact this will have on clubs is going to be huge, because it will increase resources for clubs all over the world to develop and to compete,” said the former Arsenal manager.
“In Europe we are lucky, but it’s important that we make football really global and this creates a chance for other clubs to progress. It will give more opportunities to more players all over the world to compete at the highest level.
“I accept that the football calendar is a busy one, but this is a competition that is going to take place every four years and of course the rest period during the competition and afterwards has to be respected.”
The 2025 event’s final in the United States is scheduled for July 13, which, under usual circumstances, would be four weeks before the commencement of the 2025-26 Premier League season. During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, European club competitions concluded after the conclusion of all domestic football, holding the quarter-finals onwards in August.
Consequently, in the 2020-21 season, the Premier League granted Manchester City and Manchester United the opening week off to afford their players additional rest time. Wenger is optimistic that a resolution can be reached this time, citing the improved management of players’ workloads as evidence.
“The welfare of the players in the last 20 years has increased dramatically when you look at injury prevention, recovery work, nutrition and advances in medical technology,” he added.
“Also VAR has helped with the protection of players, as players know they cannot escape from making bad tackles that cause injury.
“We see players receiving world awards, the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Benzema, all over the age of 35. And it is not unusual to see international careers lasting over 20 years.
“Not so long ago, that was not possible.”
Lack of recovery time ‘really, really tough’ for players
Manchester City manager Guardiola expresses apprehension about scheduling tournaments in the middle of the summer, which restricts the duration of the players’ offseason between seasons.
“I am not against the new competitions. I am against the lack of time to recover from year to year,” Guardiola said.
“But it is really tough to finish the season and then in three weeks restart again and go to Asia, to be financially stable, or the States. That is really, really tough, for ourselves and especially for the players. For myself, things should change.
“But how do you change when [after] you finish the season, you go to the United States to play another competition? This is the problem.”
Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva contends that the current volume of games for elite footballers is excessive, posing an elevated risk of injuries. However, he acknowledges that the substantial compensation they receive serves as a counterbalance. This perspective sharply contrasts with Wenger’s assessment.
“We were not consulted, but we try to do our jobs, to represent our clubs the best possible way, and the people that pay our salaries and the fans that support us,” said the Portugal international.
“At the end we cannot complain because we earn a lot of money, but in my opinion, for the people that love the game and are entertained by the game, if we have this many games for so long, at the end the games will lose the energy and the intensity.”
Fifpro said the new competition format “demonstrates a lack of consideration for the mental and physical health of participating players” and urged world governing body Fifa to hold talks with other football stakeholders to discuss player welfare regulations.
“The extreme mental and physical pressures at the pinnacle of the game is the principal concern of players with multiple club and national team competitions, leading to exhaustion, physical injuries, mental health issues, diminished performance, and risks to career longevity,” Fifpro said.