Klopp Blasts Club World Cup: ‘Worst Idea Ever’

Jurgen Klopp has slammed the revamped Club World Cup for adding to the strain on elite footballers.

The former Liverpool boss won the competition with the Reds back in 2019.

That victory was the first in the club’s history, with their triumph coming under the old format of the competition.

This summer’s 32-team tournament, which has reached the last 16 stage, is the first since FIFA’s overhaul.

Whilst Chelsea and Manchester City are both taking part, Liverpool are not competing.

And Klopp is thankful, with the German revealing his ‘serious fear’ over the lack of rest for players at the top level.

Speaking to German outlet Welt, he explained: “The Club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football in this regard.

“People who have never had anything to do with day-to-day business are coming up with ideas.

“I understand those who say: But there are insane sums of money for participation. But that’s not for every club. Last year it was the Copa and the Euro, this year the Club World Cup, and next year the World Cup.

“That means no real recovery for the players involved, neither physically nor mentally. Of course, they all earn a lot of money. But let’s leave that aside for a moment.

“A player in the NBA who also earns a lot of money has four months off every year. Virgil van Dijk hasn’t even had that in his entire career.

“Tournaments like the Club World Cup can’t be played on the backs of the players. I don’t wish it on anyone, but I have a serious fear.”

The expanded tournament is set to run through to the final on July 13, having kicked off just two weeks after the Champions League final.

Man City and Chelsea will then begin the new Premier League campaign on the weekend of August 16, leaving just five weeks in between.

Klopp continued: “Perhaps not everyone has recognized the real problem yet, that next season players will suffer injuries they’ve never had before.

“If not this season, then it will happen at the World Cup or afterward. We constantly tell them to go into every game as if it were their last.

“We tell them that 70 or 75 times a year. But it can’t go on like this.

“We have to make sure they have breaks, because if they don’t get them, they won’t be able to deliver top performances in the long run – and if they can’t do that anymore, the entire product loses value for the sellers.

“I once had a two-and-a-half-week preseason in which all my players were available to me. Two and a half weeks – and then we played practically every three days for a year.

“That’s brutal.”

The German coach left Anfield last summer after almost nine years in charge.

He has since taken up a new role as Red Bull’s global sport director, overseeing the organisation’s football clubs.

Of those, only one was involved in the Club World Cup, with RB Salzburg qualifying through their UEFA co-efficient ranking.

The Austrian side were eliminated in the group stage following a 3-0 defeat to Real Madrid on Thursday.

Talksport.com