Days after Carlo Ancelotti announced that Real Madrid would not participate in the Club World Cup in 2025 – statements that he and Real Madrid have quickly backed off – the player's union has taken legal action against the organization, FIFA.
The renewed competition features 32 teams from around the globe, including 12 from Europe. It will start on June 15 and end a month later, leaving less than a month until the start of the new season for the winners.
FIFPro had warned FIFA that they would consider action if it did not undertake reforms, something which FIFA categorically rejected. As reported by ESPNthe PFA in England and the UNFP in France, FIFPro's member organizations in those states, challenged the legality of FIFA's right to shape the international match schedule and schedule the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup unilaterally.
They said that “players' unions believe these decisions breach the rights of players and their unions under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, while potentially breaching EU competition law.” .
The statement went on to call the schedule “beyond saturation”, but FIFA rejected the idea that it changed the schedule to benefit its competitions.
The players have spoken about the schedule in the past year, the strongest are Toni Kroos and Thibaut Courtois, the latter of course who suffered a major injury at the beginning of this season. In the past season, not a Clasico presented the two teams with their best teams fully available, and the same was the case the season before.
