A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Soccer stars in Europe are making what might sound like a unusual complaint - too much soccer. The European players union and the continent's top leagues are bringing an antitrust case against the sport's world governing body, FIFA. They say the calendar doesn't give players enough time to rest and limits clubs' abilities to go on lucrative preseason tours. Now, the action was announced this week at a conference in Brussels, which is where I spoke with The Athletic U.K.'s senior football reporter, Matt Slater. And I began by asking him what the players and clubs hope to achieve with their complaint to the European Commission.
MATT SLATER: They just want a say. They feel that the way decisions are made in international football at the moment is it's very top-down. FIFA comes to decisions around everything from how we're going to do player transfers, contracts, rules around player agents and crucially - if you like, the most important piece of real estate - the calendar. FIFA makes those big decisions pretty much itself. What the players in the domestic leagues are saying is, hold on a minute. You haven't consulted us. We're the employers, i.e., the leagues and the clubs. And the players are saying, well, we're the stars of the show. We're telling you we're getting injured. Can we now actually have proper conversations around how we grow the game? So that's what the complaint's about.
MARTÍNEZ: Obviously, I'm in North America, but I always felt that the scheduling in North American sports like the NFL, Major League Baseball - it always seemed very organized. Like, there was a time of the year when it happened, and that's it. How does it work to schedule games when it comes to FIFA because it just seems like it happens all the time?
SLATER: One thing I will say about the difference, if you like, between North American sport and a sport that is as international as football - you know, stroke soccer - is there is no one NFL. There is no one MBA. You have domestic leagues that think they are the No. 1 league. They're certainly the most important to fans in that country. And then, of course, we do have this, you know, very vibrant international element. And that's why I sort of said it's very precious real estate. You know, when do the domestic leagues get a chance to shine? When does, if you like, Europe or Concacaf - you know, North America and Central America - when does it get a chance to run its competition? When does FIFA get a chance to run its competitions, you know, be it the Men's World Cup or this new Club World Cup - which, of course, you are hosting next summer - that FIFA have almost unilaterally tried to squeeze into a summer, which really is the only time in these kind of 11-month seasons where the players even get to sort of switch off and go have a week somewhere, you know, where they just don't think about football for a bit?
MARTÍNEZ: So now that the European Commission does have the complaint, I mean, what's next? Can they force the schedule to somehow be changed if they can agree with the players and the leagues?
SLATER: They can, but it will take time. FIFA will be invited now to respond to this complaint. And the European Commission will say, OK, can you send us lots of documents? I think that could take at least six months to a year.
MARTÍNEZ: Oh, wow.
SLATER: It then might come to some sort of decision, right? This is what we think you must do.
MARTÍNEZ: Let me ask you this, then, Matt. I mean, if, indeed, it moves painfully slow, what are the chances the players say, we're not playing?
SLATER: Sitting here now, talking to you, I don't know. All I know - the players are united, in a way that they've never been in my lifetime, on this issue of workload and too many games. You know, they want to play, but their bodies are saying, I can play - what? - 55, 60, 65 games at max? Any more than that, either my levels fall or my body fails.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. They want to play. They just don't want to be run into the ground.
SLATER: Exactly.
MARTÍNEZ: Matt Slater is a senior football reporter at The Athletic U.K. Matt, thank you.
SLATER: You're welcome.
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