Latest FIFPRO workload report launched in Istanbul ahead of UEFA Champions League final

FIFPRO and Football Benchmark released Extreme Calendar Congestion: The Adverse Effects On Player Health & Wellbeing
End-of-season report was launched with an event ahead of UEFA Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan at Ataturk Olympic Stadium
The event in Istanbul – known as Beyond Growth – focused on topics of player workload and financial sustainability

FIFPRO and Football Benchmark have launched the end-of-season 2022/23 men’s player workload report, highlighting how elite men’s players were pushed to extreme lengths during a campaign where the World Cup was forced into the middle of most domestic club seasons.

The report, which is entitled Extreme Calendar Congestion: The Adverse Effects On Player Health & Wellbeing, was presented in Istanbul ahead of the UEFA Champions League final between Manchester City and Inter Milan to key stakeholders in the football industry, including high-performance coaches and player union representatives.

Extreme Calendar Congestion: Adverse Effects on Player Health & Wellbeing

Overlapping competition schedules and elevated individual workload demands in the 2022/23 season are highlighted in a new FIFPRO report that warns of the impact on the health of professional players.

The event, presented by Samantha Johnson, focused on financial sustainability and player workload. It illustrated the dangerous workload demands of players due to extreme calendar congestion, demanding tournament workload, and insufficient preparation time and recovery periods.

"The 2022/23 player monitoring report reaffirms all the findings from previous years, but what is quite outstanding for this season, is the data we’ve identified where you can see the career paths of players in the current generation compared with footballers of the previous generations," said FIFPRO Director of Global Policy & Strategic Relations (Men's Football) Alexander Bielefeld.

"The world of work of professional players is impacted by many different aspects in the football industry – and this is something that they can't control or govern.

"So, for us, the solutions really stem from a constructive dialogue with all stakeholders in professional football. We have an overlapping calendar internationally and the solutions can only be found together; they can't be found by a single stakeholder."

After a welcome from FIFPRO Europe President David Terrier and PFA Turkiye President Saffet Akyuz, a panel moderated by FIFPRO Chief Medical Officer Vincent Gouttebarg considered the effects extreme workload has on players’ mental recovery lifestyle, family and privacy.

It included opinions from PFA CEO Maheta Molango, Paris Saint-Germain Performance Director Nicolas Mayer, and Turkiye Football Federation Board Member and former national team player Hamit Altintop.

Thursday, 08 June 2023