Football players are threatening legal action over the increasing match demands placed on their bodies with new and expanding competitions, their union has told Sky News.
The welfare warning follows our analysis finding a male player could be required for an unprecedented 86 matches from next season with the UEFA Champions League adding games and FIFAintroducing a new summer competition for clubs.
The congested fixture list leaves players with little space for rest and recovery with FIFA yet to grant union demands for a mandatory 28-day off-season break.
Image: Maheta Molango called the additional games ‘a defeat for football’
Professional Footballers’ Association chief executive Maheta Molango told Sky News: “I feel like we’ve reached a stage where people are ready to take legal action, where people are ready to take tangible action on the pitch to try to resolve it, because it’s a sad state of affairs.
“I think it’s a defeat for football when the players need to take the justice in their own hands because they don’t feel protected.”
The concerns are magnified by FIFA introducing a new 32-team Club World Cup in 2025 when most Premier League players would be on holiday.
The 2025-26 Premier League campaign could start barely a month later and that season ends with another World Cup – for national teams – and the first since FIFA expanded it from 32 to 48 nations.
Asked if competition organisers risk killing football, Mr Molango responded: “I think they are. But I think that the players are ready now to take a strong stance.
“I do think that the authorities who are supposed to protect the players and protect the games are not doing that. They are generating more competitions, generating more income to the detriment of the players.”
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FIFA maintains its new Club World Cup – featuring 12 teams from Europe, including at least Manchester City and Chelsea from England – is about growing the game globally.
The world governing body points to the backing of the European Club Association, although that organisation’s support came amid a deal to help sell commercial rights with FIFA.
But Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has protested about the new tournament in a letter to FIFA through the World Leagues Forum (WLF), which he also leads.
Sky News understands the WLF claimed FIFA is overlooking the needs of national competitions by overloading the calendar and prioritising its own interests and events over governing the sport.
FIFA, under Gianni Infantino since 2016, has been seeking a bigger footprint on football and more and bigger tournaments.
Mr Molango said: “What we all seem to forget is that ultimately, they’re all using the same assets – and I’m using the word assets for purpose because they all want to milk the same cow.
“And it’s just impossible because ultimately, the players – for as much as they are privileged people who make a very good living – the human body only allows you to do so much.”
Manchester City could face 86-game season
This is what could be required of a Manchester City player in the 2024-25 season – with 86 games potentially in total.
If City are English and European champions again, they will be contesting the domestic Community Shield and UEFA Super Cup in August around the start of the 38-game Premier League season.
Then comes the launch of the new-look Champions League with the group stage growing from six to eight games between September and December.
Image: Man City could face an 86-game season due to the expansion of two tournaments
National teams will also have a pair of games in September, October and November.
December will see another FIFA launch, with the Intercontinental Cup final contested by the European champions.
January will see the start of the FA Cup and a maximum of six games to win it – assuming replays are scrapped to address congestion concerns.
There have been talks about the League Cup switching to single semi-finals rather than playing over two legs – although City could still face five games in total with a run to the final.
February could see a team facing a new Champions League playoff round to reach the last-16 of the knockout stage if they are not among the top eight teams in the reformatted group stage.
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That means it could now take 17 matches to win Europe’s top prize rather than the 13 fixtures in City’s journey to glory last season.
And once the Champions League final is played on 31 May in Munich, players are far from being able to rest.
The ninth and tenth national-team games of the season will be played which, for some, could be the Nations League finals – an addition to the calendar since being launched by UEFA in 2018.
And that brings us to 15 June and the start of the Club World Cup.
After a three-team group stage, there will be another four matches up to the final.
The competition is taking the quadrennial slot used up to 2017 for the now-defunct, eight-country Confederations Cup that served as a World Cup test event.
Image: Champions League group stages will go from six to eight games
But the union feels its alarm about the burden on players was disregarded by FIFA with little time for recovery and a pre-season before the 2025-26 season has to begin.
It is a quandary football must address – the more matches for players the less likely they could be fit to play them all.
“It’s yet another example of authorities making decisions without contemplating what the consequences would be for player welfare,” said Mr Molango, who sits on the board of international union FIFPRO.
“This is a defeat for football. As fans we want to see the best players on the pitch and performing at the best level.
“And right now with the current calendar it is physically, humanly impossible.”
Additional reporting by sports producer Tyrone Francis
The threat of physical attacks by Iran on people living in the UK has increased “significantly” since 2022, according to a new report by parliament’s intelligence watchdog.
Iran poses a “wide-ranging, persistent and unpredictable threat” to the UK, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee.
It also said Iran’s intelligence services were “willing and able – often through third party agents – to attempt assassination within the UK, and kidnap from the UK”.
Image: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pic: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report said there have been 15 murder or kidnap attempts against British citizens or UK-based individuals since the beginning of 2022 and August 2023.
Sky News has approached the Iranian embassy for a comment.
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Millions of Iranians unite in mourning
The report authors add: “Whilst Iran’s activity appears to be less strategic and on a smaller scale than Russia and China, Iran poses a wide-ranging threat to UK national security, which should not be underestimated: it is persistent and crucially – unpredictable.”
The committee also says that while the threat is often focused on dissidents and other opponents to the regime, there is also an increased threat to Jewish and Israeli interests in the UK.
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The report warns that while Iran has not developed a nuclear weapon, it has taken steps towards that goal.
It found that Iran had been “broadly compliant” with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), aimed at limiting its nuclear ambitions.
But since Donald Trump withdrew from that deal in 2018, the report said the nuclear threat had increased and Tehran “had the capability to arm in a relatively short period”.
The UK government is also accused of “fire-fighting” rather than developing a real understanding of Iran.
Image: Iran’s president oversees a parade in Tehran in April showing off the country’s military hardware. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
Image: Missiles are paraded through the capital during the recent National Army Day ceremony. Pic: West Asia News Agency/Reuters
The report says: “The government’s policy on Iran has suffered from a focus on crisis management, driven by concerns over Iran’s nuclear programme, to the exclusion of other issues.
“As one of our expert witnesses told the committee: ‘Strategy is not a word that I think has crossed the lips of policy makers for a while, certainly not in relation to Iran’.”
The committee concluded its evidence-taking in August 2023, the result of two years of work, but the report authors say their conclusions “remain relevant”.
But the report authors questioned whether UK sanctions against individuals would “in practice deliver behavioural change. Or in fact unhelpfully push Iran towards China”.
The committee also said the British government should consider proscribing the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), although some argue it would limit the UK’s ability to talk to and influence Iran.
Responding to the report, a UK government spokesperson said: “The government will take action wherever necessary to protect national security, which is a foundation of our plan for change.
“We have already placed Iran on the enhanced tier of the foreign influence registration scheme and introduced further sanctions against individuals and entities linked to Iran, bringing the total number of sanctions to 450.”
British security services say Tehran uses criminal proxies to carry out its work in Britain.
In December, two Romanians were charged after a journalist working for a Persian language media organisation in London was stabbed in the leg. In May, three Iranian men appeared in court charged with assisting Iran’s foreign intelligence service and plotting violence against journalists.
Earlier this year, the UK government said it would require the Iranian state to register everything it does to exert political influence in the UK, because of what it called increasingly aggressive activity.
The first thing you notice when immigration officers stop a possible illegal moped delivery driver is the speed in which the suspect quickly taps on their mobile.
“We’re in their WhatsApp groups – they’ll be telling thousands now that we’re here… so our cover is blown,” the lead immigration officer tells me.
“It’s like a constant game of cat and mouse.”
Twelve Immigration Enforcement officers, part of the Home Office, are joining colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police in a crackdown on road offences and migrants working illegally.
The West of England and Wales has seen the highest number of arrests over the last year for illegal workers outside of London.
“It is a problem… we’re tackling it,” Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says. He covers all the devolved nations.
“This is just one of the operations going on around the country, every day of the week, every month of the year.”
Image: Murad Mohammed, from Immigration Enforcement, says his team are attempting to tackle the issue
Just outside the Cabot Circus shopping complex, we stop a young Albanian man who arrived in the UK on the back of a truck.
He’s on an expensive and fast-looking e-bike, with a new-looking Just Eat delivery bag.
He says he just uses it for “groceries” – but the officer isn’t buying it. He’s arrested, but then bailed instantly.
We don’t know the specifics of his case, but one officer tells me this suspected offence won’t count against his asylum claim.
Such is the scale of the problem – the backlog, loopholes and the complexity of cases – that trying to keep on top of it feels impossible.
This is one of many raids happening across the UK as part of what the government says is a “blitz” targeting illegal working hotspots.
Angela Eagle, the border security and asylum minister, joins the team for an hour at one of Bristol’sretail parks, scattered with fast food chains and, therefore, delivery bikes.
Image: Border security and asylum minister, Angela Eagle, speaks to Sky News
She says arrests for illegal working are up over the last year by 51% from the year before, to more than 7,000.
“If we find you working, you can lose access to the hotel or the support you have [been] given under false pretences,” she said.
“We are cracking down on that abuse, and we intend to keep doing so.”
There are reports that asylum seekers can rent legitimate delivery-driver accounts within hours of arriving in the country – skipping employment legality checks.
Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat all told Sky News they’re continuing to strengthen the technology they use to remove anyone working illegally.
But a new Border Security Bill, working its way through Parliament, could see companies fined £60,000 for each illegal worker discovered, director disqualifications and potential prison sentences of up to five years.
“I had them all in to see me last week and I told them in no uncertain terms that we take a very tough line on this kind of abuse and they’ve got to change their systems so they can drive it out and off their platforms,” the minister tells me.
For some of those who arrive, a bike and a phone provide a way to repay debts to gang masters.
There were eight arrests today in Bristol, one or two taken into custody, but it was 12 hours of hard work by a dozen immigration officers and the support of the police.
As two mopeds are pushed onto a low-loader, you can’t help but feel, despite the best intentions, that at the moment, this is a losing battle.
We see the boat from a distance – the orange of the life jackets reflected in the rising sun.
And as we draw closer, we can make out dozens of people crowded on board as it sets off from the shore, from a beach near Dunkirk.
There is no sign of any police activity on the shore, and there are no police vessels in the water.
Instead, the migrants crammed into an inflatable dinghy are being watched by us, on board a private boat, and the looming figure of the Minck, a French search and rescue ship that soon arrives.
Image: Minck, a French search and rescue ship, shadows the boat
The dinghy meanders. It’s not heading towards Britain but rather hugging the coast.
A few of the passengers wave at us cheerfully, but then the boat starts to head back towards the shore.
Image: Sky’s Adam Parsons at the scene
As it nears a different beach, we see a police vehicle – a dune buggy – heading down to meet it.
Normal practice is for French police officers to slice through the material of any of these small boats that end up back on shore.
Two police officers get out of the buggy and wait. A police helicopter arrives and circles above, performing a tight circle over the heads of the migrants.
The police think they might be about to go back on to the beach; in fact, these passengers know that most of them are staying put.
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The boat stops a short distance from the shore and four people jump out. As they wade towards the beach, the boat turns and starts to head back out to sea.
We see the two police officers approach these four men and have a brief conversation.
They don’t appear to check the bags they are carrying and, if they do question them about why they left the boat, it is the most cursory of conversations.
In reality, these people probably don’t speak French but they were almost certainly involved in arranging this crossing, which is against the law. But all four walk away, disappearing into the dunes at the back of the beach.