Former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has slammed the current Club World Cup as ‘the worst idea ever in football’ in a brutally honest swipe at FIFA.
Klopp, 58, appeared to be wholly unimpressed with the path taken by the sport’s decision-makers to introduce a newly-expanded 32-team format this summer.
The tournament, which is currently being held in the United States, has come in for heavy criticism for adding to what many players and managers believe to be a saturated schedule.
It has seen many of Europe’s top clubs – including the likes of PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Chelsea – have a truncated off-season due to their requirement to participate in the tournament.
Klopp has become the latest high-profile figure to express his disdain for the tournament, pointing out that its positioning in the calendar could see numerous top players get injured.
Speaking to German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, he said: ‘The Club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football.
Jurgen Klopp has slammed the newly-expanded Club World Cup tournament
Klopp labelled the Club World Cup, which is currently being held in the United States, as the ‘worst idea ever in football’. Pictured: FIFA president Gianni Infantino
The Club World Cup will result in shortened pre-season for many of Europe’s top clubs
‘People who have never had anything to do with day-to-day business are coming up with ideas.
‘I fear that next season players will suffer injuries they’ve never had before. If not, then it’ll happen at the World Cup or afterwards.’
The German, who is now Red Bull’s global chief of football, was an outspoken advocate on the importance of player welfare during his time as Liverpool manager.
In August 2022, he compared the issue of player welfare to climate change ahead of that year’s World Cup taking place mid-season in Qatar.
He said at the time: ‘If you go to the final at a World Cup and win it or lose or a third-place match you are already quite busy and then the rest starts a week later.
‘If all the players then have a break it is not a problem, it is good. It is like a winter break which I had that in Germany as a player a lot, four weeks (off), stuff like that.
‘When I start talking about it, I get really angry… It is like with the climate. We all know it has to change but nobody is saying what we have to do.’
‘My problem is that as much as everybody knows it’s not right, nobody talks often enough about it that it will be changed. Something has to change.
Klopp has long been outspoken on the topic of player welfare, most notably during his time as Liverpool manager
In August 2022, he compared the issue to climate change, saying that ‘something has to change’ on how the problem is dealt with
‘This World Cup happens at the wrong moment for the wrong reasons.’
Klopp’s former Premier League foe, Pep Guardiola, expressed an opposing view. The Man City boss – whose team have reached the knockout stages of the tournament – said it was a ‘privilege’ to compete at the competition.
‘I (have) the feeling that it’s a privilege to be here — for the people that say, “But it’s so annoying, why should (you) be here?” — but once you are here, it’s a privilege because in four years’ time — four years time isn’t going to happen again — and to be in four years time to happen again, you have to win big, big prizes,’ he said.
‘I don’t know what’s going to happen. And once we are here, I love when I see Botafogo (de Futebol e Regatas), Fluminense (FC), all the Brazilian teams, Argentinian teams, and how they celebrate the goals, how they are together. I invite them. I love them. I like them.’
Klopp also revealed why he opted to turn down the chance to manage the German national team at the end of the 2022-23 season.
He had the chance to take the Germany job while still at Anfield, only to stay on Merseyside for one more year.
However, his decision to subsequently leave the Reds came as a major surprise with Liverpool leading the Premier League title race at the time.
Klopp also explained that he ‘could have said yes’ when presented with the chance to manage his home country.
He admitted that ‘it might have been better to do something else’ after a disappointing 2022-23 campaign for Liverpool.
That saw his side finish fifth in the Premier League and miss out on Champions League football
Explaining why he chose not to move into international management, he said: I didn’t want to. And the decision wasn’t about the job of national coach per se.
‘I couldn’t leave Liverpool like that. There was a team there, there were people I had a relationship with.
I wanted to put things right again with (players new to the squad) and the core team. That was important to me.’
