‘Money excuse must stop’: Thibaut Courtois urges soccer to use NBA as reference point in calendar congestion crisis

By Aleks Klosok, CNN

(CNN) — It’s a question that’s increasingly at the forefront of soccer’s agenda: is bigger always better?

With domestic, continental and global competitions all vying for space in what’s becoming a full to bursting calendar, concerns over player welfare, the tug of war between club and country and conflicts over the direction of the game have never been more pressing.

Just ask Thibaut Courtois.

The decorated Real Madrid goalkeeper is one of those players experiencing the real-time physical and mental demands of the game.

He admits there’s no one size fits all solution; but says one counterargument aimed at his profession must be firmly put to bed.

“The excuse of ‘you earn a lot of money’ has to be stopped,” the Belgian told CNN Sport’s Amanda Davies after winning the Player Career Award at the recent Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

“You can also earn money with playing 10 games less. It’s not that (there are) too many games … I feel the problem is that we have a lack of rest.”

Player voices lost

Boiling point was reached earlier this year when unions representing soccer players launched a legal challenge against FIFA’s “unilateral” decision to set the international match calendar – notably an expanded 32-team FIFA Club World Cup.

Unions say the competition, which is scheduled to take place in the United States next year from mid-June to mid-July, infringes on the players’ right to an annual break, breaching the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights (CFREU) “without any serious justification.”

FIFA President Gianni Infantino, though, has defended the calendar.

In his opening address to the 74th FIFA Congress in Bangkok in May this year, he insisted world soccer’s governing body is “financing football all over the world.”

“The revenues that we generate are not just going to a few clubs in one country, the revenues that we generate are going to 211 countries all over the world. There is no other organization that does that,” he added.

But does Courtois believe organizers are listening to the players’ concerns?

“No, I don’t think so,” he says. “FIFPRO are trying to protect the players (…) but I think other governing bodies, they don’t think about it.

“This Club World Cup is something that has to exist, but it’s just hard to find the right way into it. I think clubs want to help, but we all follow the rules and follow the calendar we get given.”

NBA model?

So what is a viable solution to the current calendar predicament? For Courtois, the number of games isn’t necessarily the problem but rather the gap between seasons.

An avid basketball fan himself, the 32-year-old sees the NBA as a potential reference point.

The world’s dominant basketball league has a demanding schedule for eight months – with 82 regular season games before the postseason where a team can potentially play 28 games – of the year but offsets that with a significant period of rest for its players.

“I think (soccer) players will not mind to play nine months non-stop with proper preparation and load management,” he says.

“If you have two months off in summer, like (the) NBA, you can rest your body one month and you can train one month. People will be more ready to do nine months fully. When you don’t rest, then it’s when all the injuries pile up.

“This year is a Club World Cup, then next year is the World Cup, then the year after something else, so there’s no rest for players.”

Indeed, the Real Madrid goalkeeper knows all too well about the toll of fixture congestion.

The Belgian returned from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear in March this year which had kept him sidelined for nine months but has suffered a number of injuries since.

He’s also seen such pressures exerted on his club teammates.

“Jude (Bellingham) and Dani (Carvajal) played until 14th July and, then 1st August, they were at Madrid training, and 8th August, they played (UEFA) Super Cup. If you explain this to people in America with NBA, NFL, they will not understand.

“If you play in a team that plays once a week, you don’t understand this problem of the calendar because you have a game each Saturday and you deal with it and that’s how it is … but for us top players, it’s different.

“The other day I was laughing with (Federico) Valverde. I said, ‘Your next holidays will be in 2027.’ You know how mad that sounds!”

When contacted by CNN for comment, FIFA pointed Infantino’s speech in Bangkok in May, in which he said: “FIFA is organizing around 1% – 1% of the games of the top clubs in the world – 1%. When it comes to the national teams, it’s very, very similar, it’s true.

“We increased the number of participants for the (FIFA) World Cup but still it’s one month every 48 months,” he continued.

“So, I hope – I hope – that these figures that you can all, of course, check and calculate, show that we should probably stop this futile debate, which is really pointless, and focus on what we have to do, on what our mission is, which is to organize events and competitions, and to develop football around the world because 70% of you, of the Member Associations of FIFA would have no football without the resources coming directly from FIFA.”

Club vs. country

The Belgium goalkeeper also sees the problem lying not at club but international level with consequential games at every stage placing further importance on valuable squad rotation time.

The European Championship expanded from 16 teams to 24 in 2016, the AFC Asian Cup and Africa Cup of Nations expanded from 16 teams to 24 in 2019, the CONCACAF Gold Cup so to from 12 teams to 16 in 2019, while the 2026 World Cup – which will be hosted by the US, Canada and Mexico – will go from 32 to 48 sides.

Outside of qualifying for the aforementioned tournaments, competitive Nations League matches are now also played in international windows in Europe, North and Central America and the Caribbean.

“Definitely, it’s more international games,” he explains.

“For example, in the national team with the Nations League, it’s cool to play a small tournament and to win a trophy and it gives smaller teams a chance to qualify for the Euros. I like that.

“The problem is that in September, October, November, the best players, top players have to play important games where the coach cannot rotate, cannot try new things.

“Every game is so important that now the World Cup qualifier starts, and you have also to do well.”

Courtois, though, has currently chosen not to play for the Belgium national team under current coach Domenico Tedesco.

The decision came after he was left out of the Belgium squad for the 2024 European Championship following a row with Tedesco last year.

With 102 caps to his name, he admits he still holds hope of one day reappearing for this country.

“I always feel proud to play for my country,” he explains. “Obviously, the team also moved on, and I don’t know what will happen in the next month, year.

“I obviously hope to have another game, to have a proper goodbye or to play again. I would love to play the World Cup … but we’ll see what happens. It’s not so easy.”

‘We want to win everything’

It’s not only FIFA that has sought to broaden its share of the market.

From this season UEFA’s revamped Champions League – the most prestigious competition in European club soccer – now sees teams play at least an additional two games.

In a departure from the well-established six-game group stage format, clubs now play eight fixtures in a single 36-team league.

It’s a move, though, that Courtois supports.

“It’s very similar to some idea proposed by our president (Florentino Pérez) – the Super League – and to what they wanted to do,” he says.

“I guess they were right with this new approach because they’ve given a lot of exciting games and you have to fight ‘til the end and, and you don’t know what will happen.”

Courtois, along with Vinícius Jr., Bellingham and Valverde, will once again be integral to Real Madrid looking to both defend and add to their record-breaking La Liga and UEFA Champions League titles.

Despite criticism following a slow start to this season, Los Blancos already have two pieces of silverware under their belts with victory in the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Intercontinental Cup.

They’ll have the chance to add a third trophy when they, along with FC Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao and Real Mallorca, head to Saudi Arabia in mid-January to play in the Spanish Super Cup.

Meanwhile, a victory against Valencia this Friday will see them leap to the top of the La Liga table ahead of city rival Atlético Madrid.

“We never prioritize one thing,” he says confidently. “I think the last two Champions League we won; we also won La Liga.

“This year, I think everyone can beat everyone in La Liga. It’s a tough competition, and in the Champions League, the same. We just want to win everything possible and that’s also what is demanded of us at Real Madrid.”

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.