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By Tony Attwood
In a report published by Associated Press and taken up by the insurance company Howden and other outlets, it has been revealed that Chelsea had nearly half as many injuries again between June and October this year, as they had when compared with the number of injuries in the same period last year.
These findings are tucked away in a report that has been published into the club World Cup, but fortunately for once the media is taking note, although careful not to press the blame on Fifa who organised the event. It would appear that Fifa is liable to cancel press passes for media and journalists who are too critical of the organisation, although I must admit I don’t have clear evidence of this since no journalists who apply for press passes for these events are ever critical of Fifa in their reporting.
The report very helpfully compares the number of injuries during the additional summer event and in the week after the event, with those reported during that period in the season before. In a table published by Physioroom the number of injuries per club is revealed: Chelsea the cup winners, are top of the league in this regard.
Most importantly, the data comes not from the clubs that have been counting the enormous cost of participating in the affair, but from an independent report. Of course, there are claims being made to the effect that the figures actually show the opposite, but that is generally the case.
However, the simple fact is that the more games players play, the more injuries they get, and there comes a point when player injuries increase at a faster rate with additional games because they are already continuing to play on with injuries that are often described as “niggles,” but which can have an effect on the way they run and play.
It was certainly the case that at the start of this season, when most clubs had full squads. Chelsea ran into a set of results that certainly didn’t help them… a draw with Brentford, a Champions League defeat to Bayern, a league defeat to Manchester United, and another to Brighton and Hove. The only moment of light in the midst of that run was an away win against Lincoln City in the league cup, in which they played under 21 players.
According to this new report, it is suggested that Chelsea had 23 injuries between 1 June and 31 October, of which seven came from participating in the Club World Cup. The financial report produced in relation to the CWC suggested that the loss to Chelsea of not having these players was around 25% of the amount of money the club earned from winning the Club World Cup, so I guess they still think it was worthwhile.
But it wasn’t just Chelsea who got hammered in terms of injury, for it is reported that Manchester City had the second-most injuries of the clubs playing in the Club World Cup teams, although they managed to keep their numbers down by being knocked out in the round of 16.
Fifpro, the union that represents many players, have taken up the matter, noting how little time players had to recover after the CWC. It is a point the Professional Footballers’ Association have been making for a considerable time, but without effect.
In their report (the Men’s European Football Injury Index), they looked at injuries across the last five seasons and estimated that there had been over 22,000 injuries across the five top professional men’s football leagues.
The total cost to the clubs was estimated at £2.97bn of which the cost to the Premier League clubs was getting on for three quarters of a billion pounds.
The key issue is, quite simply, that the likelihood of being injured in each game increases as the number of games increases.
Now of course, the players’ union could take action by telling players not to play for their countries in these ludicrous extra tournaments, but the media pumps up each tournament and gives very negative publicity to any thought of players refusing to go. And this despite the report specifically saying, “Serious injuries are always going to happen if players are not given proper breaks for rest and recovery. Players are exposed to an extreme schedule at a younger and younger age. That will have an impact on their careers and their well-being. The current calendar makes no sense for players, fans or clubs.”
The report, Men’s European Football Injury Index, suggests that in the last five years the injuries to players in the big five European leagues have cost clubs almost £3bn. This money, for the most part comes from sponsors, and it might be worth our pointing out that it is sponsorship money that allows clubs to overplay and thus injure more and more players, and thus in turn reduce the quality of football that we get to see as supporters.
