Ballooning sports schedules pose ongoing welfare challenge for global athletes at their peak

Lebron James of Team USA celebrates with Bam Adebayo during the Men's Gold Medal game between France and Team USA during the Paris Olympic Games 2024 at Bercy Arena on 10 August 2024. (Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

By Yanga Sibembe

15 Sep 2024

Athletes at the summit of the sports food chain are some of the highest-paid professionals in the world. At what personal cost do these exuberant salaries come though?

Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne recently expressed his frustration at what he perceives as a constantly ballooning global soccer schedule, criticising administrators for pursuing profit at the expense of player welfare.

A new version of the European Champions League was recently unveiled, increasing the number of participating teams to 36 from 32. The rejigged format added two extra match days from the six played in the previous iteration of Europe’s premier club competition.

Then there is the issue of the expanded Fifa Club World Cup. In its former guise, the tournament — which had been contested since 2000 — featured six continental champions, plus a club from the host nation, facing off within a week of action-packed soccer.

However, that version of it could never quite garner the hype and prestige of the national team version of the World Cup. Soccer’s global governing body Fifa is hopeful that by expanding the tournament to 32 teams from next year, it can finally fulfill its potential.

Schedule issues

Some players and coaches are not too pleased about these developments though. One soccer star who has been particularly vocal about the crammed soccer calendar is Manchester City and Belgium midfield maestro Kevin De Bruyne. The playmaker reiterated his concerns recently.

“The real problem will emerge after the Club World Cup... We know there will be only three weeks between the Club World Cup final and the first Premier League match. So, we have three weeks to rest and prepare for another 80 matches,” De Bruyne said.

“The issue is that Uefa and Fifa keep adding extra matches. And we can raise concerns, but no solutions have been found. It seems that money speaks louder than the players’ voices,” the 33-year-old stated.

Argentine soccer manager Marcelo Bielsa sounded the alarm back in 2021 when he was in charge of English side Leeds United, saying the fixture list is “overcharged”.

“That’s why I have serious doubts over the future of professional football because it is constantly commercialised and the product every time is constantly worse,” Bielsa said.

The Premier League has one of the most congested schedules, with three domestic competitions, as opposed to the traditional two (league and cup), present in most countries. Nevertheless, even the chief executive of the most followed league in the world, Richard Masters, expressed his concerns.

“It is getting to a tipping point. The feedback we have from players is that there is too much football being played and there is constant expansion,” the Premier League CEO said.

The International Federation of Professional Footballers (Fifpro) has been highly critical of these recent developments, particularly of next year’s Club World Cup, threatening legal action should it proceed as planned.

Kevin De Bruyne of Belgium reacts after a missed goal opportunity during the Uefa Euro 2024 Round of 16 match between France and Belgium in Düsseldorf on 1 July 2024. (Photo: EPA-EFE / CHRISTOPHER NEUNDORF)

Universal problem

This problem is not exclusive to soccer though. A couple of months ago, the 2024 Currie Cup was in jeopardy — with player welfare at the centre of the dispute that threatened to derail one of rugby’s oldest competitions.

Eventually, MyPlayers (representing the players) and the South African Rugby Employers’ Organisation (representing the franchises) were able to find common ground.

Read more: Currie Cup to go ahead after ground-breaking welfare pact with players’ union over resting protocols

A mandatory eight-week rest period was agreed upon, with it being individually tailored, as opposed to being a blanket period, which may cause a conflict of interest between the players and their employers.

“The importance of player welfare was never in doubt. The challenge was to find ways to accommodate all needs,” said SA Rugby CEO Rian Oberholzer after the landmark agreement.

While the South African rugby stakeholders found an amicable way forward on the matter, a sport such as tennis is on similar ground to soccer.

Tennis ‘longest’ schedule

In recent years there has been much criticism of the constantly revolving wheel that is the tennis schedule. Serbian superstar Novak Djokovic once described it as the “longest schedule in professional sports”.

Between the four annual Grand Slams, as well as other micro tournaments organised by the Association of Tennis Professionals and Women’s Tennis Association respectively — tennis players hardly have any time to rest. As Spanish tennis star Carlos Alcaraz recently pointed out.

“As I said many times, the schedule in tennis is really tight. There are a lot of tournaments I love to play. But sometimes I can’t do it,” Alcaraz stated.

Of course, unlike team sports professionals, tennis players have a bit more agency on when they can rest. They can opt out of tournaments.

Naturally, this has consequences. It affects their income, and can also have an impact on their rankings, which are important for tournament eligibility in the first place.

Lebron James (left) of Team USA celebrates with Bam Adebayo during the Men's Gold Medal game between France and Team USA during Paris Olympic Games 2024 on 10 August 2024. (Photo: Michael Reaves / Getty Images)

Shut up and play?

Some sectors of society have always been critical of sports stars, saying athletes are paid exuberant amounts of money just to play with a ball.

Why not take the money that Cristiano Ronaldo or LeBron James earn and donate it to charity? Or surely a doctor that saves lives every month should be a more deserving choice to receive such staggering figures?

However, in an ultra-capitalistic world, different sectors of society make different amounts of income. Based on this, they decide how much they want to pay their employees.

DM is much better if you are signed in...

South Africa

South Africa, Sport, World

Ballooning sports schedules pose ongoing welfare challenge for global athletes at their peak

Schedule issues

Universal problem

Tennis ‘longest’ schedule

Shut up and play?

Read more: Cricket South Africa reports massive profit after barren spell thanks to India’s all-important, all-format tour