Gareth Bale warns greed could harm footballer welfare as matches pile up – and backs calls to scrap VAR

Published

1 year ago

May 27, 2024

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Gareth Bale has revealed to Sky News concerns football could become “too greedy”, with players’ mental and physical well-being endangered by growing fixture demands.

The former Wales captain, who won every major honour with Real Madrid, urged football authorities to act so “it doesn’t take something bad to happen for that to change”.

In his first notable interview since retiring in January 2023, Bale reflected on the highs and lows of an illustrious career, assessed the wider state of the game – including what he describes as the need to scrap VAR – and expressed admiration for Jude Bellingham’s immediate impact at Madrid.

Bale retired at 33 as a five-time Champions League winner with Madrid – becoming Britain’s most successful male footballing export while still facing difficult times winning over fans in Spain.

The pressures he felt are now only growing as competitions add matches, much to the frustration of global players’ union FIFPRO.

Bale said in an exclusive interview with Sky News: “The intensity and the quickness [are] only getting higher, and it’s very difficult to continue playing at that high level.

“And then when the level comes down, you only get scrutinised.”

He said that while “everybody understands that money … plays a big part” and “more games means more money”, players “want to play the right amount of games where you can cope with it without it being dangerous”.

He added: “It’s a very fine line, but hopefully everybody can come together and come to a right resolution for player welfare.”

Some players now could be required for more than 85 matches in a season for club and country with FIFA introducing a new 32-team Club World Cup every four years and UEFA expanding the Champions League.

“The amount of fixtures is becoming more and more and it’ll just become more demanding – and hopefully it doesn’t take something bad to happen for that to change,” Bale said.

“Looking after the players is an important thing. They’re the ones who are growing the game, bringing the fans in to watch them.”

Asked about hopes for football, Bale replied: “It’s just about staying together as one and without certain things getting too greedy.”

‘VAR only made it worse’

One thing he certainly doesn’t miss is video assistant referees delaying celebrations and ruling out goals.

Premier League clubs are set to vote next week on whether to scrap VAR.

VAR, Bale says, was “supposed to take away the controversy in football and it’s only made it worse – I like the human error aspect”.

“Things in slow motion look a lot worse than they do in real time. So, when you slow things down, a handball looks way more of a handball than it does in real action.

“So I don’t like it. I would like to see it gone personally.”

‘Fantastic’ Bellingham

Bale led Tottenham into the Champions League for the first time before an £85m move to Madrid in 2013.

The 14-time European champions are back in the final on Saturday at Wembley Stadium against Borussia Dortmund – a notable homecoming for Jude Bellingham after a wondrous first season in the Spanish capital.

The 20-year-old English star has already won LaLiga with 19 goals and six assists.

“At such a young age to be doing what he’s doing is fantastic,” Bale said. “It’s great to see, it’s refreshing and it’s important.”

It is especially important to get off to a good start at a club of such history and tradition like Real Madrid, he said.

“The intensity, the pressure that you can feel under…,” said Bale.

“So, he had a great start so far. Obviously, they still have a big game to come and it’ll be great for him to win a Champions League in his first season, that really settles the pressure and, hopefully, he can kick on from there.”

Ups and downs in Madrid

Life in Madrid wasn’t always easy for Bale, with jeers from his own fans despite being so integral on the big occasions with memorable goals like the scissor kick in the 2018 Champions League final win over Liverpool.

“Of course, there’s always going to be ups and downs,” Bale said. “It’s how you deal with those, how you bounce back, how your character comes out.

“There were obviously some great times, there were obviously some bad. But, I think normally the good outweighs the bad in the end.”

Undoubtedly the biggest moments of pride came with his country – leading Wales to the Euro 2016 semifinals and ending their 62-year World Cup exile in 2022.

“If you’d told me when I was a young kid that I would have the career I did, I probably would never have believed you,” Bale said. “I feel like I overachieved”.

“But I think as you get older, your goals change, your body changes, your talent kind of takes over, the hard work kicks in.”

Now there is more time for golf and family.

“It’s been really nice just to take a step back and have that pressure just relieved a bit,” he said.

“So it’s been good. Obviously I’ve spoken to people when they’ve retired. It’s all about keeping stuff a little bit busy.”

Climate concern

Bale also expressed concern over how football impacts climate change – and stressed the importance of not neglecting the environment while chasing sporting glory.

His message for collective action on sustainability features alongside those of other players, clubs and fans on a Pledge Ball made from recycled boots by Champions League sponsor Mastercard.

“It’s difficult to make big changes,” Bale said. “It’s always about making those little changes.”

Bale urged the media “to write about the good things, not the bad things”, mentioning Lewis Hamilton as an example of somebody who is “doing a lot of good” and gets “unfair” treatment.

“He made such a massive effort to kind of change his environment and to do right,” Bale said of the F1 driver.

“And then people forget all the hard work he’s done and write maybe about just the small, I guess, negative where he drives an F1 car, which is obviously CO2. So, people need to realise that he’s doing a lot of good and not just that little bit of not bad.

“So, I think for him to make such a big change was massive. But to get the scrutiny I guess he got was very unfair.”

The sense is Bale also prefers life without scrutiny, away from the football spotlight with no desire to become a coach.

“I’m enjoying time, being at home with the family, spending more time with the kids,” he said.

“Enjoying life, to be honest.”

UK

Nationwide police operation on grooming gangs announced

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1 hour ago

June 16, 2025

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Nationwide police operation on grooming gangs announced

A nationwide police operation to track down those in grooming gangs has been announced by the Home Office.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) will target those who have sexually exploited children as part of a grooming gang, and will investigate cases that were not previously progressed.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a statement: “The vulnerable young girls who suffered unimaginable abuse at the hands of groups of adult men have now grown into brave women who are rightly demanding justice for what they went through when they were just children.

“Not enough people listened to them then. That was wrong and unforgivable. We are changing that now.

“More than 800 grooming gang cases have already been identified by police after I asked them to look again at cases which had closed too early.

“Now we are asking the National Crime Agency to lead a major nationwide operation to track down more perpetrators and bring them to justice.”

The NCA will work in partnership with police forces around the country and specialist officers from the Child Sexual Exploitation Taskforce, Operation Hydrant – which supports police forces to address all complex and high-profile cases of child sexual abuse – and the Tackling Organised Exploitation Programme.

It comes after Sir Keir Starmer announced a national inquiry into child sex abuse on Saturday, ahead of the release of a government-requested audit into the scale of grooming gangs across the country, which concluded a nationwide probe was necessary.

The prime minister previously argued a national inquiry was not necessary, but changed his view following an audit into group-based child sexual abuse led by Baroness Casey, set to be published next week.

Ms Cooper is set to address parliament on Monday about the findings of the near 200-page report, which is expected to warn that white British girls were “institutionally ignored for fear of racism”.

One person familiar with the report said it details the institutional failures in treating young girls and cites a decade of lost action from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), set up in 2014 to investigate grooming gangs in Rotherham.

The report is also expected to link illegal immigration with the exploitation of young girls.

Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader, said on Saturday that Sir Keir should recognise “he made a mistake and apologise for six wasted months”.

Speaking to Sky’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips, Chancellor Rachel Reeves refused to say if the government will apologise for dismissing calls for a national public inquiry into grooming gangs.

She said: “What is the most important thing here? It is the victims, and it’s not people’s hurt feelings about how they have been spoken about.”

UK

Career spy Blaise Metreweli to become first woman to head MI6

Published

1 hour ago

June 16, 2025

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Career spy Blaise Metreweli to become first woman to head MI6

Career spy Blaise Metreweli will become the first woman to head MI6 in a “historic appointment”, the prime minister has announced.

She will take over from Sir Richard Moore as the 18th Chief, also known as “C”, when he steps down in the autumn.

“The historic appointment of Blaise Metreweli comes at a time when the work of our intelligence services has never been more vital,” Sir Keir Starmer said in a statement released on Sunday night.

“The United Kingdom is facing threats on an unprecedented scale – be it aggressors who send their spy ships to our waters or hackers whose sophisticated cyber plots seek to disrupt our public services.”

Of the other main spy agencies, GCHQ is also under female command for the first time.

Anne Keast-Butler took on the role in 2023, while MI5 has previously twice been led by a woman.

Until now, a female spy chief had only headed MI6 – also known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – in the James Bond movies.

Dame Judi Dench held the fictional role – called “M” in the films instead of “C” – between 1995 and 2015.

Ms Metreweli currently serves as “Q”, one of four director generals inside MI6.

The position – also made famous by the James Bond films, with the fictional “Q” producing an array of spy gadgets – means she is responsible for technology and innovation.

Ms Metreweli, a Cambridge graduate, joined MI6 in 1999.

Unlike the outgoing chief, who spent some of his service as a regular diplomat in the foreign office, including as ambassador to Turkey, she has spent her entire career as an intelligence officer.

Much of that time was dedicated to operational roles in the Middle East and Europe.

Ms Metreweli, who is highly regarded by colleagues, also worked as a director at MI5.

In a statement, she said she was “proud and honoured to be asked to lead my service”.

“MI6 plays a vital role – with MI5 and GCHQ – in keeping the British people safe and promoting UK interests overseas,” she said.

“I look forward to continuing that work alongside the brave officers and agents of MI6 and our many international partners.”

Sir Richard said: “Blaise is a highly accomplished intelligence officer and leader, and one of our foremost thinkers on technology. I am excited to welcome her as the first female head of MI6.”

UK

Woman, 23, dies after falling in water at beauty spot in Scottish Highlands

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1 hour ago

June 16, 2025

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Woman, 23, dies after falling in water at beauty spot in Scottish Highlands

A woman has died after falling into the water at a popular beauty spot in the Scottish Highlands.

The 23-year-old had fallen into the water in the Rogie Falls area of Wester Ross.

Police Scotland confirmed emergency services attended the scene after being called at 1.45pm on Saturday.

“However, [she] was pronounced dead at the scene,” a spokesperson said.

“There are no suspicious circumstances and a report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.”

Rogie Falls are a series of waterfalls on the Black Water, a river in Ross-shire in the Highlands of Scotland. They are a popular attraction for tourists on Scotland’s North Coast 500 road trip.