Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has suggested that the only way to reduce the amount of matches in the football calendar is for players to go on strike.
Guardiola’s counterpart at Manchester United, Erik ten Hag, blamed recent injuries at his club to an “expanding” calendar and a “great overload” on Friday, while Burnley boss Vincent Kompany has called for the number of appearances a player can make in a season to be capped.
The Catalan has previously said that Uefa and Fifa ‘kill the players’ by adding extra games to the schedule, and he believes the only way for that to change is for the stars themselves to take action, citing the example of the women’s game in Spain, where strike action helped force change within the federation and raised the minimum wage.
“There is only one solution to change something, maybe if all the players decide for themselves to say, ‘Stop’, then you have to change something,” Guardiola said. “And then Fifa, Uefa will maybe react a little bit.
“In this business the show must go on. Without Pep, keep going, but without the players the show will not go on. But it depends on them, if they decide.”
Spain’s World Cup winners signed a letter announcing their intention to boycott the country’s Nations League fixtures and…
