FIFA are playing fast and loose with the fitness of the world’s best players ahead of this month’s newly expanded Club World Cup, according to David James.
The expanded tournament which begins next weekend, will feature 32 teams from all corners of the globe compete in the USA over the next month after FIFA abandoned the old format that saw just seven teams take part, with just seven games played in total.
The year’s final will be the 63rd game of the tournament and James has dubbed it ‘a joke’.
David James takes aim at FIFA over Club World Cup burnout
“If I were Manchester City, I would declare my entire first team injured and send the youth team to the Club World Cup,” he told FourFourTwo, speaking on behalf of Prime Casino. “I think it’s a joke. You’ve got the best players and the best teams in the world complaining about too many games, then you introduce this tournament.
“You’re trying to work out who benefits, especially when you look at some of the outfits in it, who – as far as I can consider – haven’t even got a world ranking of the stature to be involved with the best in the world.”
James - who FourFourTwo ranked at no.5 in the list of the the greatest-ever Premier League goalkeepers - believes the reason for this expanded tournament, which is putting players at risk, is simple: corporate greed.
“The old format was fine,” he continues. “This format just looks like an opportunity for someone to make more money out of players. They’re being flogged for it. It’s not that players shouldn’t be able to go and take part in these matches, but I think it’s an event too far.
“I know there’s some obligation for being in it that you have to put your best team forward, but if players are injured, they’re injured, so declare them injured.
“You’ve got sports science teams looking at recovery periods – if you’re a team like Man City, most of your squad is involved on international duty as well, and what benefit is it to a club when the players that you depend on for nine months of the season are being compromised for one competition?”
“It was FIFA that wanted to change the format, but you’re asking fans to travel around the world to follow their sides. I don’t like it. Because it’s a new format, there will be a lot of opinions similar to mine: that this is never going to work.
“But if it sustains itself and becomes a regular fixture, then in the future we’ll be talking about teams planning on going out there to win it, knowing it’s going to be a highly competitive event. At the moment, though, there will be players who are just absolutely knackered come the start of the season.”
