Misleading soccer schedule: there are no more games than 20 years ago

Recently, players and coaches have been complaining about the congested schedule. Carlo Ancelotti is frequently asked about this issue in press conferences: “Complaining won’t change the schedule. It’s important to reflect on this. The governing bodies need to think about the players, who are getting tired.”

Barcelona’s coach, Hansi Flick, also calls for better care of players and fewer games: “I think FIFA needs to take better care of the players. This isn’t the best situation for them. We all love football and want players to perform at their best. If we want the highest quality, we need to reduce the number of games.”

It’s becoming more common for elite players to suffer long-term injuries (like Carvajal, Militaão, Ter Stegen, Marc Bernal, Hamari Traoré…), and one reason cited for this misfortune is the heavy match load. One of these injured players, Carvajal, complained about the schedule right before the first game of the season, ahead of the UEFA Super Cup final.

“The schedule makes no sense. It’s impossible to maintain an optimal level. If we try to do everything, it’s impossible to perform in 72 games. The relevant authorities should analyze this. The quality of the games drops, and we and our families suffer.”

These injuries aren’t entirely related to the match load, as Sergio Pardo Carrillo, a fitness coach who worked with Francisco at clubs like Rayo Vallecano and Almería, explained to AS: “It’s a multifactorial injury. There’s a lot of talk about the match load, which is one factor, but there’s not as much fatigue now,” making it clear that this load isn’t the only or main reason at this point in the season. After all these complaints, are more games being played now than 20 years ago?

Similar Schedules

This season, the team that can play the most games is Real Madrid, as they will compete in up to seven official competitions. If they reach the final in all of them, Ancelotti’s team would play a total of 69 games. This is more than usual because this season includes the new Club World Cup, which will be held every four years and would add up to seven games if they reach the final. Without this competition, a club team could play up to 63 games.

Game Breakdown: Then and Now

These games are divided as follows: 38 league matches, six cup games, two Spanish Super Cup matches, one UEFA Super Cup match, 15 Champions League games, and one Intercontinental Cup match. Looking back 20 years to the 2004-05 season, a team reaching the finals in all competitions could play the same number of games, 63.

While some competitions have changed the number of matches, the total remains the same: 38 league games, nine cup games, two Spanish Super Cup matches, 13 Champions League games, one UEFA Super Cup match, and one Intercontinental Cup match. Two years earlier, there were even more games, as the Champions League had two group stages, increasing to 17 matches if you reached the final, totaling 67 games per season.

Despite complaints from players and coaches, the number of club-level games played over a season is very similar to what it was 20 years ago. Since the early 2000s, the match load has remained consistent over the last 25 years, with only minor variations. Since the introduction of the Champions League group stage in the 1994-95 season, the number of club-level games has been quite similar.

Fewer International Breaks

International breaks are scrutinized, and clubs try to prevent their players from being called up during these windows or to have them released after the first game if the second is a friendly or if they are suspended. Recently, there has been talk of consolidating all breaks into one to reduce the number of international trips and avoid interrupting club competitions.

Currently, there is one fewer break than before. Today, two games are played in September, two in October, two in November, two in March, and two in June, totalling ten games, not counting Euro or World Cup years. Previously, in addition to these breaks, national teams played a friendly in August and a midweek game in February, between two league matchdays, playing two games with their clubs and one with their national team in just seven days. In total, 11-12 international games were played during the season.

The difference from the early 2000s is the number of friendlies. National teams played three to four friendlies during the season, but now, with the introduction of the UEFA Nations League, they play only one friendly, as the rest are official competition matches.

Fewer Minutes Accumulated

One of the consequences of COVID-19 in soccer was the increase in the number of substitutions per game from three to five, allowing players to accumulate fewer minutes on the field and addressing some of the criticism about the schedule.

For example, last season at Real Madrid, only two players exceeded 4,000 minutes (Rüdiger and Valverde), while six players had 3,000 minutes and several others had 2,000. Looking back 20 years to the 2003-04 season, up to nine Real Madrid players exceeded 4,000 minutes (Casillas, Salgado, Roberto Carlos, Helguera, Raúl Bravo, Zidane, Beckham, Raúl, and Figo), while two players exceeded 3,000 minutes.

Team rosters are getting longer, which helps reduce the minutes players accumulate, so they don’t have to log as much playing time as they did in the past. What has really changed are the pre-seasons. Previously, teams would spend a month preparing in their home city, but now, summer tours mean players don’t reach the optimal condition desired at the start of the season.

While coaches and players have valid complaints about the long and packed schedule, the reality is that this has been the case for the past 20 years in soccer. However, with longer rosters and more substitutions allowed, the physical and athletic demands are higher, but the match schedule has remained the same since the early 2000s.

Original article written by Daniel L. Peinado, translated with the assistance of AI and edited by Joe Brennan.

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