𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Players’ union chief executive Maheta Molango believes the threat of players striking over workload has not gone away and says tensions between his members and competition organisers have “escalated” over the last four years.

Some of the world’s top stars are currently involved in the Club World Cup in the United States, often training and playing in high temperatures on the back of long domestic seasons and with new campaigns just around the corner.

Manchester City midfielder Rodri said last year players were “close” to striking over the demands being placed on them and Molango believes there remains concern among players that their voices are not being heard.

Asked if a strike was still on the table, Molango said: “It comes to a stage when you expect the authorities to look after you and they don’t look after you.

“When you go to those pre-season meetings with other stakeholders, you can see the tension. I’ve been doing that now for four years and the tension has been escalating.

“People are saying, ‘This is my career. And in the end, you (competition organisers) make decisions, but in the end, I have an average eight years to have a career’.”

Molango says expanded international competitions may have the most direct, physical effect on the very top players, but that those underneath will suffer too and expects pressure to be brought to bear internationally on the Premier League to cut to 18 teams to accommodate overseas competitions.

He cited the disappearance of FA Cup replays as an immediate example of a domestic repercussion and added: “The next step is pressure on domestic leagues, pressure on, ‘Why are we the only country with so many cups? Why don’t we get rid of the League Cup?’

“Those are things that we can see would be in the pipeline. What about if they say, ‘Let’s reduce number of teams in the Premier League’.

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“It isn’t going to be a problem for the top clubs, it’ll be a problem for the nine, eight clubs that fight for relegation.

“And I would say to them – don’t be fooled. The TV money pot is what it is, it’s not getting any bigger. And therefore a new competition means a new guest trying to eat into that pie.”

Molango hopes the Club World Cup experience will make FIFA listen to calls to avoid afternoon kick-offs in certain venues especially prone to high temperatures for next year’s World Cup finals in the US, Canada and Mexico, if for no other reason than tired players effectively playing walking football is bad for business.

“We’ve reached a stage where the quality is dropping, because there’s no way you can have a good game if you play at 4pm in Mexico. It’s impossible.

“My hope is that people now, even from a pure business perspective, will see that does not make sense.

“We’re devaluing the product and it’s a shame, you know, because if I’m a US fan, and that’s my first exposure to soccer, that’s not good.

“That’s not good because we need to be mindful that we’re competing with other sports and they’re very good at entertainment. Then (football) becomes a very poor comparison.”