Jamie Carragher warns against holding Club World Cup every two years: ‘Players get treated like cattle’

The former Liverpool defender and CBS Sports analyst Jamie Carragher has warned football fans will not see stars play their best football if the sport’s calendar intensifies demands any further upon its players – who he says are at times treated like “cattle.”

This summer saw the inaugural expanded FIFA Club World Cup, which took place in the United States, involving 32 teams but FIFA are reported to be examining ways to grow the tournament, which may include expanding the number of teams in the competition or even making the competition a biennial event rather than being held every four years.

FIFA have not announced any changes to the current four-year separation between the tournament and would only do so after consulting stakeholders. FIFA appears to believe the tournament was a huge success, having today sent out a media release claiming that independent data from Nielsen Sports revealed an audience of 2.7 billion across “all forms of media.”

On Tuesday, Carragher participated in a media call alongside co-stars Thierry Henry, Micah Richards and presenter Kate Scott in order to promote CBS Sports’ UEFA Champions League coverage. Carragher said earlier this summer that he had “no time” for FIFA’s new competition, joking that he may not even get off his sun lounger while on holiday to watch the games.

The Athletic asked Carragher if he saw anything that may have changed his mind and made him reassess.

He said: “From Chelsea’s point of view, it’ll feel like a big thing to win, and if I was a player, it would feel big, because you don’t know where this competition’s gonna go. How did the European Cup start? How did the World Cup start? How did the European Championship start? They all started somewhere, and they all grew. So who knows if this competition will grow in the future?

“If there’s that much money involved, I’m sure it will. But if it becomes every two years, that basically means there’s no summer off for any season (when also including international tournaments such as the World Cup and European Championships). I just don’t see how that’s right. The problem the tournament has is that people will only be watching it for a month. Even the World Cup has a two-year build-up with qualifying rounds.

“It feels like the Club World Cup will just be this month of games every four years. People will be interested when it’s going on and they’re not thinking about it for four years. Now, with the Champions League, and I’m not just saying it because we do this show, it’s every season, the excitement’s built from match day one to the final, it’s constantly there.

“It just feels to me, and I don’t think I’ll change my opinion, like this competition has been crowbarred in by (FIFA President Gianni) Infantino, because FIFA have got nothing that can compete with the Champions League year in, year out, in terms of revenue, and they have to wait every four years for a World Cup, so he thought, ‘How can we make a tournament?’

“I don’t think they’ve thought about the players, to be honest. Thierry’s just mentioned players going down with injuries. Who knows if that is down to the Club World Cup? Sometimes you can be a little bit unlucky, but it certainly doesn’t help. I do think players get treated like cattle. I’m not one of those who thinks, ‘Oh, you earn so much money a week, you should be able to play every week in all this.’

“I don’t think it works like that. They deserve a rest. We as fans, or pundits, deserve to see them at their best. And if they’re constantly playing week in, week out, with no summer’s off, we can’t be seeing these players at their best.”

On the call, Carragher, Richards, and Henry were asked to give their tips for this year’s Champions League.

Henry warned that the team “that’s going to keep everyone fit” will be the most likely to win the trophy. In recent days, Club World Cup finalists PSG have lost Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele to substantial injuries, while winners Chelsea will be without forward Liam Delap until November.

“Right now, all I see is people falling,” Henry said.

Carragher said last season’s Champions League winners PSG remain the team to beat but said that Liverpool’s hefty summer spend also increases expectations on Arne Slot’s team.

“Watching PSG in the second half of the season was an absolute joy. The football was out of this world.”

On Liverpool, Carragher said: “For that amount of money, the names Liverpool have signed, they’re not projects, they’re ready-made stars in Wirtz and Isak, certainly.

“I’m not trying to put extra pressure on them in any way, but it almost feels like the type of signings that Real Madrid would make, they’ll bring the biggest names they can bring in. It’s not something we’re really used to at Liverpool as such. Liverpool have to be there or thereabouts with the players that they’ve brought in.”

Richards tipped Barcelona, saying: “It is the way they play football and the young players are now gonna be a year older.

“Lamine (Yamal) the Dream has just been on fire. They’ve got Fermin Lopez, another youngster who is just incredible. And a manager who knows exactly what they need to do.

I think Marcus Rashford could be a massive threat off the bench, even just to inject that little bit of pace. I like the look of Barcelona, alongside PSG, obviously.”

(Top photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

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