Its all getting very political and FIFA excluding FIFPro and the PFA from talks about player welfare stinks imo.
I think we're heading for a strike and tbh I wish UEFA would take on FIFA, lesser of two evils as I see it.
Would you be generally supportive of playerers going on strike (Try not to use the lazy argument that they get paid enough so should be ok with being flogged to the point of not enjoying their job). And we all know the clubs shouldnt be doing pre seasons tours.
From my pov there's just too much football, its becoming diluted, as much as I hate the summer break it is needed for us to reset the passion. I almost just wasnt interested in watching City play a summer tournament.
Just out of curiosity - how much credence is there in the claim that playing football stars over and over due to a tight schedule leads to more injuries on the basis of injury to time played ratio?
In case this isn't clear - let's for example take 2 scenarios:
1) Footballers rarely play. Only in league games. Once per week. What is the injury rate in this circumstance? On the basis on injuries per hour played?
2) Footballers play frequently - as they do now. What is the injury rate in this circumstance - on the basis of injuries per hour played?
I honestly don't know how injury rates from #1 compare to injury rates from #2. And I know of no studies looking into this.
===
IMO there well could be a point where playing someone in world football too frequently leads to more injuries per hour played than playing him or her less frequently. But what is the point at which it's too dangerous to the player?
===
Until hard data on player injuries versus minutes played recently becomes available - I think that the pushback on minutes played is overblown.
On the other hand, let's say that playing someone at a rate of once per day leads to the same injury rate as playing that person once per week. In this situation - the question becomes - is it worthwhile to play in a substandard uninteresting tournament given the injury risk - albeit the same as playing in other tournaments - because the risk (injury) to reward (possibly winning the tournament) is too high?
IMO data is lacking to adequately address this question.
===
Into the mix - player injuries occur in training too. How much does intensive training contribute the injury rate, if at all? Might the training regime be adjusted when playing frequent matches to reduce risk to an acceptable level?
Again - not enough data, IMO, to judge.
