Jurgen Klopp has blasted FIFA for its failure to protect player's health in the newly revamped Club World Cup format.
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Klopp: Club World Cup is 'worst idea ever'Ex-Liverpool boss believes injuries will followEuropean stars have one month off before next seasonFollow GOAL on WhatsApp! 🟢📱WHAT HAPPENED?
The former Liverpool manager took aim at the sport's governing body, lamenting decisions that are made by people with no experience in the "day-to-day business" of club football. When presented with comments of Bayern Munich executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge praising the tournament and Gianni Infantino, Klopp admitted some will be won over by the "insane" money involved, but he still worries over the stress on the athletes themselves.
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Klopp suggested elite players will experience more and more injuries unless their burden is lessened. Ultimately, that will make the product less appealing to fans, as players' ability to perform diminishes, creating less "value" in the long run. He has a point. If Manchester City or Chelsea make the final of the new format, they will have just one month between their last game in the States and the new season.
Watch every FIFA Club World Cup game free on DAZNStream nowAFPWHAT KLOPP SAID
Klopp was speaking of the great job Julian Nagelsmann has done as Germany boss, before launching into his criticisms in a conversation with . He said : "Julian touched on a few topics at one of his recent press conferences, saying that we need to develop more specifically. He was talking about full-backs and wingers. In the end, it's all about the game and not the surrounding aspects—and that's why the Club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football in this regard. People who have never had anything to do with day-to-day business or who no longer have anything to do with it come up with something."
When presented with Rummennige's positive comments on the Club World Cup he said: "I understand those who say: 'But the money you get for participating is insane.' But it's not for every club.
"Last year it was the Copa and the European Championship, this year the Club World Cup, and next year the World Cup. That means no real recovery for the players involved, neither physically nor mentally. Of course, they all earn a lot of money. But let's leave that aside for a moment. An NBA player who also earns really good money has four months off every year. Virgil van Dijk hasn't even had that in his entire career. Tournaments like the Club World Cup cannot be held on the backs of the players. I don't wish that on anyone, but I have a big fear.
"[I have a fear that] That players will suffer injuries they've never had before next season. If not in the next season, then it will happen at the World Cup or afterward. We constantly expect the lads to go into every game as if it were their last. We tell them that 70 or 75 times a year. But it can't go on like this. We have to make sure they have breaks, because if they don't get them, they won't be able to deliver top performances in the long run – and if they can't do that anymore, the entire product loses value for the sellers. I once had a pre-season of two and a half weeks in which all my players were at my disposal. Two and a half weeks – and then we played practically every three days for a year afterwards. That's brutal."
WHAT NEXT FOR KLOPP?
Klopp has never been afraid to express his opinions, and now he is away from the touchline running global football operations for Red Bull Group, he might have even more freedom to spray takes on the game.