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'Bigger does not mean better' - why more matches is not for good of the game
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'Bigger does not mean better' - why more matches is not for good of the game

#Tony Pulis #Premier League #Champions League #World Cup expansion #Player injuries #Fixture congestion #Football governance #Sports science

📌 Key Takeaways

  • Tony Pulis criticizes the expansion of football tournaments and increased match frequency
  • Long-distance travel for European competitions creates significant recovery challenges
  • Despite advances in sports science, soft-tissue injuries remain a major concern
  • The Premier League should be protected from excessive fixture congestion
  • Top football competitions have been 'watered down' by governing bodies focused on revenue

📖 Full Retelling

Former Premier League manager Tony Pulis has written a BBC Sport column criticizing football's governing bodies for expanding tournaments and increasing match frequency, warning that the condensed schedule threatens player welfare and dilutes the quality of top competitions like the Champions League and World Cup. Pulis draws from his experience managing Stoke City in the Europa League, where teams faced grueling journeys to distant locations like Israel, Ukraine, and Croatia. He details the challenges of player recovery after such trips, particularly when followed by Premier League fixtures. The Newcastle team's recent 2,529-mile journey to Baku marked the longest distance ever traveled by an English side in the Champions League, exemplifying the physical toll modern football places on athletes. Despite advances in sports science and medical care, Pulis questions why soft-tissue injuries remain prevalent despite increased investment in player care. The former manager contrasts his successful approach to preventing muscular injuries during his career with current practices, noting that while players today are bigger, stronger, and quicker, they're also accelerating more frequently. He criticizes FIFA and UEFA for expanding competitions, pointing out that the upcoming World Cup will feature 48 teams playing 104 games—double the number from 1994. Pulis argues that the Premier League, considered the world's best, should be protected from these changes, suggesting that top players are being treated as 'cash cows' rather than elite athletes needing proper rest and recovery.

🏷️ Themes

Player Welfare, Tournament Expansion, Competition Quality, Football Management

📚 Related People & Topics

Champions League

Champions League

Topics referred to by the same term

# UEFA Champions League The **UEFA Champions League** (UCL) is an annual club football competition organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Contested by top-division European clubs, it is one of the most prestigious football tournaments in the world and the most prestigious c...

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Premier League

Premier League

English association football league

# Premier League The **Premier League** is the highest level of the English football league system and the primary professional association football competition in Great Britain. ### Overview Contested by **20 member clubs**, the league operates as a corporation in which the teams act as sharehol...

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Tony Pulis

Tony Pulis

Welsh footballer and manager (born 1958)

Anthony Richard Pulis (; born 16 January 1958) is a Welsh former professional football manager and former footballer who last managed Sheffield Wednesday. Pulis obtained his FA coaching badge at age 19, followed by his UEFA 'A' licence aged 21 – making him one of the youngest professional players ev...

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Entity Intersection Graph

Connections for Champions League:

🏢 Premier League 3 shared
🏢 Real Madrid CF 3 shared
👤 Arne Slot 2 shared
🌐 Liverpool 2 shared
🏢 Inter Milan 2 shared
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Original Source
'Bigger does not mean better' - why more matches is not for good of the game Published 9 minutes ago Comments With the season heading into its final months, games are coming thick and fast, especially for the Premier League clubs still in Europe. With the extra games, travelling, time difference and the added disadvantage when teams return to face an away game in the Premier League, player welfare is another problem for managers of those teams. How do you maintain the quality of rest time that you know the players need to perform at the highest level and reduce the risks of injury? Out of the teams in action this week, Newcastle have had the longest journey. Their 2,529-mile trek to Baku is the furthest distance ever travelled by an English side in the Champions League. The journey there and back, plus the difficulty of an away game at Manchester City on Saturday evening, is a tough ask - especially when you factor in how, statistically, the results usually go against the team playing away in Europe. This was something I had to deal with at Stoke when we were in the Europa League, and faced long flights to Israel, Ukraine, Croatia and Turkey. We tried all kinds of methods to help our recovery, sometimes flying straight back after games, or staying overnight and allowing the medical staff to take the lads in the mornings for a light recovery session, having breakfast then flying home. It was really difficult to find the most balanced way. Irrespective of what we tried, having to play an away game that same weekend was really tough, and we suffered a couple of heavy Premier League defeats afterwards. The same goes for many teams, though. I don't think anyone has truly found the answer to that particular problem, even if there were ways to manage players' fitness over the course of the season that I used effectively myself. Getting a player fit for the season - and keeping them that way In the modern-day game, enormous investment is made into all different departments ...
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