PFA chief claims football is ‘sleep-walking into a crisis’ amid burnout fears

Professional Footballers Association chief executive Maheta Molango has warned football is “sleep-walking into a crisis” due to the demands put on players by an unrelenting schedule.

Liverpool forwards Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are each set to play in their 70th match of the season in Saturday’s Champions League final against Real Madrid, with two new surveys highlighting the risk of excessive workload on players’ mental and physical health.

Almost 90 per cent of high-performance coaches surveyed by world players’ union FIFPRO said players should be involved in no more than 55 matches per season – a mark Salah and Mane have already well exceeded for club and country.

Speaking from a FIFPRO conference in Paris, the city which will host Saturday’s showpiece final between Liverpool and Real, Molango said: “Football is sleep-walking into a crisis on player welfare.

“The health and wellbeing of players is being jeopardised in the pursuit of commercial priorities and relentless competition cycles.”

Molango said the issue was the main one raised when he visited Premier League clubs to speak to players.

“Players instinctively want to be part of every game and every competition,” he added. “But they have real concerns about their ability to maintain peak performance under current conditions.

“At present, we are simply playing too many games. Congested scheduling disrupts sleep, breaks training schedules and limits recovery. Over a sustained period, it results in more injuries and ultimately shortens careers.”

Salah and Mane have been part of the Liverpool squad that have already won the FA Cup and Carabao Cup this season, pushing Manchester City to the wire in the Premier League before finishing one point short.

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