Are players playing too much?

[Rui Costa]

Browsing some football news the other day I was surprised to read that the players of FC Barcelona, instead of lounging on a beach somewhere, sipping cold Martinis and toasting the downfall of those evil primadonnas from Madrid, are in fact, in Asia, still competing, weeks after their gruelling season has ended!!

Deco and Xavi, those poor unfortunate pygmies, aren't built for that kind of exertion and it brings up the long posed question whether players are being overworked.

In the current state of affairs we have the Confederations cup ongoing, clubs are travelling to the US, Asia and as soon as they can fit it into their schedule I'm sure, the North and South poles(for that untapped eskimo market!) in pursuit of commercial gain while the fitness and freshness of their players seems to be a secondary issue.

The last World cup, as we all well know, and as one highly esteemed, highly respected analyst and journalist of the game noted, "sucked balls" ,whilst even Maradona, high on every drug available in Cuba, sat pensive and bored wishing for a good old fashioned spiking of a Brazilians water to liven up the proceedings.

I am worried that the 06 version is going to be similiarly jaded with mediocre nations advancing while the more talented are burnout and unable to drag the level of play from the unbearable, excruciatingly poor standards we've witnessed in the last two majors.

Seriously,the Uefa cup, the Champions league and the league formats are draining players of all their reserves and energy without them having to play meaningless matches for public relations.

I think the obvious answer is yes.

Discuss.

[Hartfield]

The game has increased It's pace. before players used to smoke drink ******** before games no problem. Now the game is faster and more demanding.

[dapip]

You can approach the problem from several perspectives.

1. Playing too much, numbers prove it: Today we have more tournaments and championships than ever in the sport. A top team can easily play 38 LT games, 8-10 National Cup matches, 15-16 continental league games, 6 to 10 NT matches and on top of that throw 6 to 8 more games for promotional purposes or non-traditional competitions (i.e. Confederations, World Club Championship). That gives us a total of easily 70-80 games in one season, some players are playing almost twice a week for the whole year.

2. Playing too much, but they're Pros and they're being paid for it: Well, a star like Ronaldo or Zidane or Beckham (Only RMadrid players came to mind), are being paid millions and receive millions more for advertising.

Beckham $28 mil (Pay Rank: 8 among ALL SPORTS) Midfield, Real Madrid
Ronaldo $19 mil Forward, Real Madrid
Zidane $16 mil Midfield, Real Madrid
Raul $15 mil Forward, Real Madrid
Nakata $15 mil Midfield, Bologna
Vieri $14 mil Forward, Internazionale
Figo (RM), Kean (MU), Owen (RM) $12 million
Del Piero, $10 million, Juventus

http://www.forbes.com/celebrities/2004/06/23/04athletesland.html

http://www.footballeconomy.com/

"player costs exceeded £1 billion for the first time, in part due to Chelsea's record spending. Total wages increased by the lowest rate ever (7 per cent) in the Premiership's history and actually declined if Chelsea are excluded. In relation to player transfer costs, the substantial fall in 2002/3 was reversed with gross spending of over £400m largely driven by Chelsea. The amount of transfer fees leaving the English game to overseas clubs and agents was a record at £263m." Note 1£=1.8US$ or 1.5Eu aprox.

3. Playing too much and injuries are showing it. Off course you can always throw in the financial part of it, meaning that you, as a player, do not risk your road to riches and play it safe at the first sign of injury.

4. Only a few play too much: Only the likes of Ronaldo, Ronaldihno and a few more play as many games, because only a few clubs and NTs have the ability to reach deep down in every tournament they participate. Like Brazil and RM or Barca. I feel that not a lot of Liverpool players played as many games as lets say Chelsea or Barca. players.

[celito]

Absolutely. I don't think it's relevant to bring up how much they are getting paid. They are definitely playing too many games. WC 2002 was a prime example.

[FK-Cement]

playing too much ? Hard to say ... from one side everyone see that in the end of the season they are very tired, but from the other side I want my favorite team to play as much matches as possible. It's horrrible week form me without match of Cementarnica :(

[dapip]

Absolutely. I don't think it's relevant to bring up how much they are getting paid. They are definitely playing too many games. WC 2002 was a prime example.

It is relevant in the sense that when you are getting paid millions and more millions for advertising you keep going as much as possible to not upset your sponsors, and in return Nike/Adidas will schedule three more matches in the US or in China or Korea to get return from their investments selling more jerseys and cleats.