Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel and Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp expressed their discontent with the midseason World Cup in Qatar over concerns of the demands on their players.
Tuchel said that players could be affected in the months before and after the World Cup in Qatar, adding that the emotions and demands of soccer’s showpiece tournament could leave footballers drained. Klopp said it makes him “angry” and that football’s governing bodies could do more to protect the players.
The Premier League’s 2022-23 season will be paused from Nov. 12 to accommodate the World Cup, which runs from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18, and will resume on Boxing Day.
“It doesn’t make so much sense,” Tuchel said in a news conference on Friday.
“The players are very focused on the World Cup already which is a good thing because they come in shape and take care of themselves.
“But it’s also a bad thing because they are also focused on World Cup and not just here. We will see how it influences the players and their performances in October when it gets closer.
“It will have a huge impact emotionally and physically on the players, they will come back drained. Big success and huge disappointment can also drain them mentally, and then days later we have Boxing Day. I’m a bit uncertain about all this.”
Liverpool boss Klopp likened the situation to climate change, and said that people talk about it but no one acts on it.
“If you go to the final at a World Cup and win it or lose or a third-place match you are already quite busy and then the rest starts a week later,” he said.
“If all the players then have a break it is not a problem, it is good. It is like a winter break which I had that in Germany as a player a lot, four weeks [off], stuff like that.
“When I start talking about it, I get really angry… It is like with the climate. We all know it has to change but nobody is saying what we have to do.”
“There must be one meeting where they all talk to each other and the only subject should be the most important part of this game – the players.
“My problem is that as much as everybody knows it’s not right, nobody talks often enough about it that it will be changed. Something has to change.
“This World Cup happens at the wrong moment for the wrong reasons.”
Chelsea and Liverpool start their Premier League campaigns on Saturday, as they face Everton and Fulham respectively.
