Could footballers go on strike?
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 796 Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2024
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Earlier this year, Manchester City midfielder Rodri issued a warning that players were "close" to taking strike action over their increased workload.
Rodri played 63 competitive games for club and country last season. But a recent report found that a player welfare 'red line' was a maximum of between 50 and 60 matches per season, depending on a player's age.
Some of the game's biggest names have joined Rodri in threatening to walk out, and the union that represents them is launching legal action against the sport's governing body, FIFA.
But there's a lot of money invested in football, so what's the likelihood the sport might change to stop players feeling over-stretched? And is strike action likely or even possible?
(Picture: Empty stadium with floodlights shining down on a football on the pitch. Credit: Getty Images)
Presented and produced by Matt Lines
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC World Service on match day at Old Trafford Stadium, home of Manchester United Football Club. |
| 0:12.0 | The fans are teeming into the stadium here for the match against Brentford. |
| 0:16.3 | There's a smell of burgers in the air, and in front of me is a sea of red and white with hundreds of supporters |
| 0:21.9 | wearing jerseys and scarves. I'll be catching up with some of those fans later on discussing |
| 0:26.9 | the topic of today's program. Could there be a strike in the world of football? With more and more |
| 0:32.1 | games and tournaments being added to the calendar, players have started speaking out about the amount |
| 0:36.4 | of football they have to play. |
| 0:39.3 | You are living the dream and feel like you are invincible. |
| 0:43.2 | And when you hit 26, 27, 28 marks, you understand the toll of it. |
| 0:49.0 | Not just only physically, you know, the impact of sacrifice with the family. |
| 0:53.0 | Some of the game's biggest names are threatened to go on strike, and the union that represents |
| 0:57.0 | them, is launching legal action against the sports governing party, FIFA. |
| 1:00.0 | Enough is enough. We can't take it anymore. |
| 1:04.0 | We have now an international match calendar which is beyond saturation. |
| 1:09.0 | But with so many people invested in so much money on the line, |
| 1:13.2 | what's the likelihood that the sport will change to stop players walking out? |
| 1:16.9 | We need to do something. |
| 1:18.4 | The doing something is fraught with difficulty |
| 1:21.0 | because something has to give |
| 1:23.4 | and it's hard to see how that will happen at this present moment. |
| 1:27.0 | So could some of the world's top players refuse to play? |
| 1:30.2 | That's coming up on today's Business Daily. |
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