Courtois hit out at the growing football calendar after his
side's 2-1 defeat by Italy in the UEFA Nations' League
third-place playoff, labelling the match, in which both teams
rotated their squads, a "money game".
"We are not robots. It's just more and more games and less rest
for us and nobody cares about us. When will we get a rest?
Never," Courtois said.
The football calendar has been squeezed in the last 18 months
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Champions League and many
of the continent's top leagues taking place in shorter spaces of
time but with the same amount of matches.
The European Championship and Copa America were both held at the
end of the gruelling season and there is to be no let up in the
near future.
Next year's World Cup takes place between November and December
-- in the middle of the club season -- while the Nations League
finals will be held in June 2023.
FIFA, meanwhile, wishes to hold an expanded Club World Cup and
its head of Global Football Development, former Arsenal manager
Arsene Wenger, has outlined proposals for a biennial World Cup.
"Next year we have a World Cup in November, we have to play
maybe until the latter stages of June again. We will get
injured," added Courtois.
"So in the end top players will get injured and injured and
injured. It's something that should be much better and much more
taken care of."
UEFA has opposed the plan for more frequent World Cups and the
proposed European Super League, but Courtois said the European
organising body was not interested in player welfare either as
they too keep adding to the fixture calendar.
"They are against Super League but they just do the same, they
put extra games. They made an extra trophy, (Europa Conference
League). It is always the same," added the Belgian.
"They can be angry about other teams wanting a Super League but
they don't care about the players, they just care about their
pockets."
UEFA did not immediately respond to comments from Courtois.
The Nations League was launched in 2018 with the aim of offering
more competitive matches for the continent's teams instead of
international friendlies.
The Europa Conference League, which began this season, was
created in order to increase the number of UEFA member nations
playing in European competitions.
(Reporting by Richard Martin; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
|