Jurgen Klopp demolishes the Club World Cup: "A folly"
In an’interview granted to ‘Die Welt’, Jurgen Klopp, currently Red Bull’s Head of Global Soccer, harshly criticized the Club World Cup, the new global competition wanted by FIFA: “It is absolute madness, the worst idea ever experienced in soccer”.
“I understand that for some clubs the money is a lot– added the’former Liverpool coach– but that is not the case for everyone. Players have no more time to recover, either physically or mentally. Last year there was the America’s Cup and the European Championship, this year the Club World Cup, and next year the World Cup. When should they rest?”.
He then made a comparison with the NBA: “An NBA player earns a lot and rests four months a year. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool captain during the period when the German coach sat on the Reds bench, ed.) never had such a break, nor those salaries”.
“I fear an’unprecedented wave of injuries. They are expected to play every game as if it were a final, 70 or 75 times a year. It cannot go on like this. Without breaks, the product also loses value. In my entire career, I have only once had a two-and-a-half week preparation with the whole team available. Then we played every three days for a whole year. It is inhumane” concluded Klopp.
