England’s Nations League withdrawals expose workload crisis, says PFA chief
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LONDON, Sept 29 :
Cole Palmer’s withdrawal from England’s Nations League squad is proof that football’s overloaded calendar is driving elite players beyond their limits, Professional Footballers’ Association Chief Executive Maheta Molango said on Tuesday.
Palmer, Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento pulled out of England’s squad ahead of the latest international window.
“When we in England see five players need to withdraw from a call-up, which is the single most proud moment that you have as a player to be called up for the national team, then you just ask yourself: what’s wrong about the industry?” Molango told reporters at the Peak Performance & Health Summit in London.
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The PFA and global players’ union FIFPRO have repeatedly warned that the football calendar is unsustainable.
The growing number of withdrawals and injuries during the current Nations League window has added urgency to a long-running dispute between players’ unions and competition organisers over the volume of games elite players are expected to play each season.
“When you see someone like Cole Palmer, who would have played four consecutive summers (had he played in this year’s World Cup), then you wonder why he is missing?”, Molango said.
“He’s missing because he is a victim of the calendar, and I think that’s something that needs to absolutely trigger the alarm bell.”
Molango said England’s withdrawal list was part of a wider pattern affecting the sport’s biggest names, citing Nations League injuries to Germany’s Kai Havertz, Dutch striker Brian Brobbey and France captain Kylian Mbappe.
“For those who think that it’s only a matter in England, then look at Havertz, look at Brobbey, look at Mbappe,” he said.
“Is it a football where the people who make us dream just cannot perform? For me, it’s very worrying.”
The debate over player welfare has intensified as an increasingly congested calendar stretches players’ commitments to club and country.
“The solution is for governing bodies, who are here not to make money but to preserve the game, to refocus on what really matters,” Molango said. “It is a system that is sick, because the system ultimately revolved around obtaining votes and not for what is good for football.”
SUPPORTERS DEPRIVED
Molango said football was depriving supporters of the stars they pay to watch.
“It’s a defeat for football that people like Cole Palmer, people like Phil Foden, miss out,” he said.
“I want to see Leah Williamson, Lucy Bronze, Phil Foden and Cole Palmer on the pitch. And I want to see them perform at their peak. It shouldn’t be the survival of the fittest.”
England manager Thomas Tuchel responded with frustration to Palmer’s withdrawal, saying the forward “misses too many opportunities” to prove he belongs in his country’s shirt.
Rejecting suggestions that injured players are less committed to international duty, Molango said the issue was physical limits.
“They love to play for England. They love to play for their national team,” he said. “But unfortunately your body puts a limit to it. You cannot cheat biology.”
Molango also rejected the notion of squad rotation.
“There’s a lot of hypocrisy with this whole rotation argument,” he said. “If I go and watch a concert of Beyonce, I want to see Beyonce on stage. I don’t want to see the talented guitarist. I want to see the main actor.”
(Writing by Lori Ewing; Reporting by Lori Ewing and Iain Axon, editing by Ed Osmond)
Source: Reuters
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