Never ending cycle of no rest

Day -868. ‪WorldCup2018‬.

I don't have much sympathy for footballers and their complaining about how much football they have to play. Yes, I understand at their level of competitive physical activity their bodies need down time to recover. And with the incredible level of fitness of the modern footballer even in the off-season they need to keep working on staying in top shape. But it's sometimes a little hard to feel sympathy for the big earners who moan about having to play a football match once or twice and week and only get 6-8 weeks off in the summer.

This is changing and football is slowly becoming a year round sport. At the club level their are teams in Europe who finish their season at the end of May and are then back in pre-season training by mid-June, in preparation for the pre-qualifying rounds of the European competitions. And today I came across a news story about the 500 day countdown to the Confederations Cup in 2017. And when I took a look at the teams playing in that I did a quick assessment of how much they have played in the last few years and the next couple.

Take Chile and Mexico. They both played in the 2014 World Cup at the beginning of that summer. Last summer, 2015, Chile won the Copa America, with Mexico guest participants at the South American Championships. This was in June. In July, Mexico played in, and won, their continental championships, the Gold Cup. Mexico also had a team in the Pan Am Games last summer. Admittedly, this would not have had regular first team players but they may be playing this summer.

This summer, the Copa America is on again. It has had a bit of an irregular schedule over the years, happening every 2, 3 or 4 years. This year it is being held to mark 100 years since the first edition. Mexico and Chile are in it. Later this summer, Mexico will be in the Olympic football tournament. There will be some players from the first team and others who may be playing next summer....in the Confederations Cup.

After the Confederations Cup, Mexico and Chile will almost definitely be in the 2018 World Cup.
Therefore, a relaxing of my no sympathy feeling may be in order. In the cycle from 2014-2018, there will be many players who will hit the summer of 2018 going on their 5th summer of playing competitive football after a long season with their club teams, having had a very short rest between their international commitments and the start of pre-season club training the previous summer/autumn, which was preceded by another long season which was preceded by international commitments, pre-season club training the year before...and so on.

And who can we blame for all this football, which not only takes a toll on the players, but also leads to a saturation point where fans get bored of having so much to watch? Fifa, and the continental federations who want more football, more tournaments, more revenue. And along with that comes all the side effects and related revenue opportunities: construction companies to be paid to build stadiums, roads, train tracks, airports and ticketing companies to re-sell tickets and souvenirs that have to be made and sold.

And on it goes. And money makes the football world go round. And it makes some players very, very rich.