By Julien Pretot
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Players have never been closer to going on strike amid growing discontent towards soccer’s governing bodies, notably FIFA and its revamped Club World Cup that is being compared to a ‘Super League’, the head of players’ union FIFPRO Europe said on Monday.
David Terrier was speaking to Reuters after FIFPRO Europe, the European Leagues association and Spain’s LaLiga accused FIFA of “abuse” as they filed a joint complaint about the global governing body’s international match schedule to European Union antitrust regulators.
Terrier said only ‘social dialogue’ between the sport’s stakeholders could save its ecosystem.
“Obviously as a union leader I should be dreaming of a strike because it gives you more power but I’m very attached to the concept of social dialogue,” Terrier said.
“It would be a serious failure to get to that extreme but this extreme is getting closer every day.
“The European Union must remind everyone and tell them they have to go through social dialogue.”
In a joint press conference on Monday, FIFPRO Europe, European Leagues and LaLiga lashed out at FIFA’s packed match calendar, airing videos of players, including France captain Kylian Mbappe, saying they had too many matches on their plate.
Manchester City’s Rodri opened the door to a strike in September, although a sports law expert said such a move in the Premier League was unlikely.
“Are we going to go all the way (to a strike)? The players are ready and what they cannot stand is that FIFA does not hear or does not respect them,” Terrier said.
“More and more players are telling us they want to stage a strike,” he added, taking aim at the Club World Cup, which will be hosted by the U.S. across 12 venues among 32 clubs from June 15-July 13, 2025.
Terrier compared the event with the European Super League attempt in 2021 made by 12 top clubs from England, Italy and Spain to create a breakaway league.
The project eventually failed under massive pressure from fans, politicians, soccer officials and even the British royals.
“(The Club World Cup) is a devious way to build (a Super League) and FIFA will do everything to stick with their idea for credibility reasons. They should first and foremost take care of the nations, not the clubs,” Terrier said.
“They will finance it with their reserve revenues, but those should go to the clubs who need it.”
FIFA has yet to announce how it will finance the Club World Cup.
The governing body said in 2019 it would expand the tournament to 24 clubs starting in 2021, although the COVID pandemic and the rescheduling of Euro 2020 a year later made it impossible.
In 2022, FIFPRO hailed the “open dialogue (that was) taking place and being promoted” with FIFA.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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