{"id":13438,"date":"2024-09-22T14:16:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T14:16:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/?p=13438"},"modified":"2026-02-01T14:09:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T14:09:06","slug":"caf-president-motsepe-says-too-many-games-not-good-for-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/13438\/caf-president-motsepe-says-too-many-games-not-good-for-football\/","title":{"rendered":"CAF president Motsepe says too many games ‘not good for football’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top-level footballers playing too many games will have a damaging effect on the sport in future, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) president has told the BBC.<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, a handful of leading figures in the game have spoken out against the increase in games, with Manchester City and Spain midfielder Rodri saying players are\u00a0close to going on strike.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t want them to play more than they should \u2013 it\u2019s not good for football, and it\u2019s not good for the long-term success of the sport,\u201d Caf president Patrice Motsepe told BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commitment from all stakeholders is indeed the players\u2019 health and condition, and the frequency which they have to be on the field is important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Motsepe is the owner of Mamelodi Sundowns and the South African club provides a good example of the workload faced by leading players.<\/p>\n

Fifa\u2019s expanded 2025 Club World Cup has increased the burden, since an event that lasted around ten days and involved a maximum of two matches in December for the big teams will now span a month from June and require seven matches for victory.<\/p>\n

Should South Africa qualify for the next World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), then Sundowns players \u2013 ten of whom were in the squad that\u00a0finished third at this year’s Afcon<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 would not have a break until mid-2027.<\/p>\n

This is because Fifa’s Club World Cup is in June-July 2025, the following season contains a Nations Cup running from December 2025-January 2026, and the World Cup then takes place in June-July 2026.<\/p>\n

In Europe, where the Champions League now has two extra games, Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti is\u00a0considering mid-season holidays<\/a>\u00a0for his squad while Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson, a team-mate of Egypt star Mohamed Salah, said players are tired of \u201chaving more games\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of what we have to do is to keep talking, keep engaging but also keep listening,\u201d said Motsepe.<\/p>\n

\u201cSolutions will be found that are in the interests of all parties.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top-level footballers playing too many games will have a damaging effect on the sport in future, the Confederation of African Football (Caf) president has told the BBC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13439,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":10,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"BBC"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1116,1,2362],"tags":[2690,3208],"class_list":["post-13438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-african-union","category-analysis-reports","category-featured","tag-confederation-of-african-football-caf","tag-patrice-motsepe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13438"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13438\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19561,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13438\/revisions\/19561"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}