It’s easy to see the fatigue of the players participating in EURO 2024. Gareth Southgate and Didier Deschamps even had to withdraw stars Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappe to rest. Ilkay Gundogan must play up to 67 matches from the beginning of the 2023/24 season. The exhaustion of the players clearly impacts the quality of EURO.

“The current overlapping competition schedule is unacceptable. Players cannot maintain their form for the whole season with a terrible density of three days a match”, Dani Carvajal once complained about the players being exhausted.

If Spain reaches the EURO 2024 final, the Real Madrid defender will play his 46th match in Berlin from the beginning of the 2023/24 season. A long season starts on August 12, 2023 and ends on July 14, 2024. Carvajal also only has a few weeks of rest before starting the new season on August 14 in Warsaw, where Real Madrid plays the European Super Cup match.

Carvajal’s 11 months of non-stop competition are nothing compared to other stars. Anyway, the 32-year-old defender can “breathe” thanks to coach Carlo Ancelotti’s rotation policy. Perhaps thanks to that, Carvajal still showed convincing performance at this year’s EURO.

There are many people more miserable than Carvajal. They came to EURO with broken bodies and exhausted physical strength. Ilkay Gundogan played a total of 67 matches for both Barcelona and Germany. Phil Foden, Kai Havertz, Codi Gakpo, Granit

The Spanish player who has to play the most is Lamine Yamal, who is only 16 years old but has played 62 matches. “I think this problem not only happens to Lamine Yamal but also to any player who participates in all competitions. Both UEFA and FIFA need to review the match schedule. A player cannot play more than 60 matches a year,” Carvajal said. The Spaniards are very worried that Yamal is at risk of following in the footsteps of Pedri or Gavi, players who are very young but have had to play with a high frequency, leading to constant injuries.

At EURO 2024, complaints appeared across all teams. The players feel tired and it directly affects the quality of the tournament. In the quarterfinals, 3/4 matches had to go into extra time. Great battles like France – Portugal or England – Switzerland take place boringly at a slow pace. England’s stars disappointed with only 5 goals while France has not even scored a goal from a live ball (2 own goals, 1 goal from a penalty).

Southgate admitted: “We have certain limitations due to the players’ poor physical condition.” In the match against Switzerland, Southgate had to take two key players, Harry Kane and Phil Foden, off in extra time because they were completely exhausted. In the French national team, Kylian Mbappe even asked Deschamps to rest in extra time against Portugal because “I was too tired to continue playing”.

Professional football players’ association FIFPro has threatened to take legal action against FIFIA if the organization does not respond to the “emergency situation” that the players are calling for. “It is one of the most difficult problems in European football today. They want more matches, more tournaments to earn more revenue. But that causes serious consequences for the players in terms of both physical and mental exhaustion,” said David Terrier, president of FIFPro’s European region.

But it seems all calls for help fell on deaf ears. FIFA is preparing to launch the Intercontinental Super Cup between the two European and South American championship teams, followed by a new version of the Club World Cup with 32 clubs and a new format Champions League starting from the 2024/25 season. . The competition schedule will be even more intense. The players continue to be miserable victims. And where will football go?