The Club World Cup is devaluing football because players cannot perform properly, according to Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Maheta Molango.
High temperatures have impacted players, while low crowds have also been a factor in Fifa’s extended competition in America.
Ten Juventus players asked to be substituted during their 1-0 defeat by Real Madrid, with the last-16 game in Miami on Tuesday played in temperatures reaching 30C and humidity of 70%.
Borussia Dortmund’s substitutes also spent the first half of their game against Mamelodi Sundowns last month watching from the dressing room because of the heat.
Six matches have had to be suspended because of thunderstorms, including a two-hour delay in Chelsea’s last-16 win over Benfica.
It means, less than a year before the start of the World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico, Molango is worried by how the competition is impacting the players and the sport.
“We’re devaluing the product and it’s a shame because if I’m a US fan and that’s my first exposure to soccer, that’s not good,” he said.
“We need to be mindful we’re competing with other sports and they’re very good at entertainment. Then it becomes a very poor comparison.
“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, because the players themselves say to you ‘I cannot. I need to manage my efforts’ – which would mean what you see on the pitch is not good, the audiences drop, it’s as simple as that. This is all about money.
“My hope is that people now, even from a pure business perspective, will see that it does not make sense.”
Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp called the competition “the worst idea ever implemented in football”, and global players’ union Fifpro released a report days before the tournament began saying that players should be allowed at least a four-week off-season break.
“It’s this feeling of accumulation of competitions that just do not talk to each other and create a calendar that is just nonsensical,” added Molango.
“Let’s see what happens in October, November [to players] – that’s when you’re going to start seeing because you pay the price. This Club World Cup gives us a chance to start looking at the bigger picture.”
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola understood Klopp’s position, but felt competing in the Club World Cup was the price of success.
“Would I love to have two months to prepare for next season? Yes. Would I love to be refreshed for next season? Yes. But it is what it is,” Guardiola said, before City were knocked out by Al-Hilal this week.
