FIFA Says It Has Reached Consensus with Several Players’ Unions on Minimum Rest Standards
NEW YORK, JUL 13 – FIFA and player unions agreed on minimum rest of 72 hours between matches and a 21-day off-season break to address fatigue and injury risks amid fixture congestion.
- FIFA president Gianni Infantino and officials held talks with player union representatives in New York just before the final match between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea in the Club World Cup.
- The meeting followed growing concerns and union criticism about extreme player workloads and the addition of the Club World Cup to an already saturated calendar.
- FIFA and several players’ representative groups agreed on a consensus to enforce a minimum of 72 hours rest between matches and at least 21 days of holiday at season’s end.
- FIFA hailed the talks as progressive, stating that players’ health is a top priority and that rest days should be pragmatically managed considering travel and climate factors.
- The consensus implies potential adjustments to match schedules but stops short of binding agreements, reflecting ongoing tensions amid legal challenges and union exclusions from talks.
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61 Articles
As the World Cup of Clubs ended on a one-way final, the issue of overwork of players comes back with insistence. The physical and mental burden imposed on professional footballers reaches worrying levels.
The players' representatives and the world soccer governing body reached a consensus on the need for a 72-hour break between matches and agreed that players should enjoy a minimum of 21 vacation days at the end of each season, FIFA said.
The International Football Association Board (FIFA) has agreed with players' representatives to set minimum standards for the amount of rest that players must have during the season. Whether the agreement will actually be valid will be known in the coming weeks, as representatives of the players' union Fifpro were not invited to the meeting, Croatian news agency Hina reports, citing the BBC.
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