Top footballers are afraid to speak out against playing too many matches for fear of the impact it could have on their careers, the general secretary of global players union FIFPro said on Friday.
Alex Phillips was speaking after FIFPro held a meeting in Amsterdam with 58 national player unions from around the world to discuss concerns over the way the sports world governing body FIFA is managing global football.
The meeting came less than two weeks after the end of the first 32-team Club World Cup in the United States, a tournament hailed as a huge success by FIFA president Gianni Infantino but criticised by FIFPro for the demands it has placed on players already faced with a crowded schedule.
Before the Club World Cup, I was speaking to some of the top stars and they were saying they hadnt had a rest for X amount of time, Phillips said.
One of them even said, Ill only get a rest when I get injured. Others were resigned actually, and cynical about speaking up.