Jurgen Klopp Unleashes Furious Critique: Why the Club World Cup Could Harm Football’s Future
— Football Talk (@FootballTalkHQ) June 28, 2025
Klopp pointed to the cumulative toll on players’ health, using Virgil van Dijk as an example.
“A player in the NBA who also earns a lot of money has four months off every year. Virgil van Dijk hasn’t even had that in his entire career. Tournaments like the Club World Cup can’t be played on the backs of the players. I don’t wish it on anyone, but I have a serious fear.”
The tournament will run through to July 13, meaning clubs like City and Chelsea will have only five weeks before the start of the Premier League season on August 16.
Klopp believes this congested schedule will cause significant issues, warning: “Perhaps not everyone has recognized the real problem yet, that next season players will suffer injuries they’ve never had before. If not this season, then it will happen at the World Cup or afterward.
“We constantly tell them to go into every game as if it were their last. We tell them that 70 or 75 times a year. But it can’t go on like this.”
He added that the quality of the game itself could decline if nothing changes.
“We have to make sure they have breaks, because if they don’t get them, they won’t be able to deliver top performances in the long run, and if they can’t do that anymore, the entire product loses value for the sellers,” he said.
Since leaving Liverpool last summer after nearly a decade in charge, Klopp has taken on a new role as Red Bull’s global sporting director, where he oversees their network of football clubs.
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