DORTMUND, Germany (Reuters) – The constantly growing number of matches has become a major burden for players who are also playing for their national teams, and it is adding to a larger number of injuries, Borussia Dortmund coach Nuri Sahin said on Tuesday.
Sahin was speaking ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League game against Barcelona with his team missing a string of players. Dortmund have been hit hard by injuries this season with some 10 players missing at one stage.
“It is not an excuse. I am not searching for an excuse… but it is a fact that especially for national team players the burden is almost unbearable,” he told a press conference.
“Because yesterday for example we planned the season with the Club World Cup (in June-July) and I don’t know when Greg (Kobel) will go on holiday.”
Dortmund and Switzerland goalkeeper Gregor Kobel was sitting next to him at the press conference. Dortmund are taking part in the Club World Cup.
Expanded Champions League and FIFA Club World Cup formats, alongside enlarged national team competitions, have created a greater number of games for top teams and players.
The new-look 32-team Club World Cup in the United States will run from June 15 to July 13, 2025, cutting into the players’ summer holidays in a year without a World Cup or a continental competition in Europe, Asia or South America.
Only a few weeks after its end the new league seasons get under way which will then lead into the expanded 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
World soccer body FIFA has defended its calendar as necessary, while the president of European body UEFA has said the issue affects only a minority of players.
“The players travel from A to B and from B to C but it is not only the matches,” Sahin said. “The game itself has changed as well.
“I am not that old but some 10 or 15 years ago the game was different with fewer sprints, less running. Now you have to go completely to your limit in every game.”
“I don’t think FIFA will change it now because Sahin spoke out but I feel that the burden for national team players is way too high,” the coach added.
“You see it in the top teams. You mentioned Bayern Munich. Barcelona, many injuries, Real Madrid, many injuries. You can go through them all. I don’t think that will change.”
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
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