Despite rumblings, Premier League player strike unlikely, says sports law expert

MANCHESTER, England : The chorus of frustrated players and managers speaking out against football's gruelling fixture schedule continues to grow, with Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate the latest to say earlier this week he would support players' right to strike.

Conversations at recent team press conferences have turned to the schedule's physical toll, with Manchester City's Rodri saying last month that players could be ready to lay down tools.

Despite the calls for strike action, whether it is likely in the English football structure where the richest players earn hundreds of times more than those at the other end of the financial spectrum is another question.

"It is possible, but I would say at the moment it's incredibly difficult," Sarah Carrick, an expert in sports law and a senior lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, told Reuters.

"In the Premier League, the Professional Footballers' Association (PFA) would need to ballot their 5,000 members, in the way any union ballots members to go on strike...

"It's incredibly difficult to ask a player in a lower league team who is maybe on 500 pounds ($652) a week to give that up to come out in solidarity with someone who is earning millions of pounds."

The expanded Champions League and the new FIFA Club World Cup formats, alongside enlarged national team competitions, are at the crux of the issue.

Global governing body FIFA has defended its calendar as necessary, while the president of European body UEFA has said the issue affects a minority of players.

"The ones with lower salaries and hardly 11 players are not complaining. They love to play," Aleksander Ceferin said at the European Clubs' Association General Assembly on Thursday.

There is a disparity in workload with