It's hard not to see a cause and effect link there. Paris Saint-Germain, the club whose starters played the most last season, played their last matches with half of their typical team in the infirmary. Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué, Bradley Barcola, Joao Neves, Marquinhos… And the list is not even exhaustive.
At the end of September, Fifpro, the players' union, sounded the alarm regarding the infernal pace imposed on players, particularly internationals playing in major clubs. PSG was cited as a (bad) example, with a summer break that was far too short and a very high number of matches for certain executives.
This is the other side of the coin for clubs which go far in all competitions… and which are not helped by the authorities which always add more matches to their calendar. Thus, PSG would undoubtedly have done well without this Club World Cup in the United States, which stretched its season until mid-July.
PSG will be even worse in 2029
The worst part of all this is that the situation is unlikely to get better. Ever more greedy, Fifa is working on changing the format of the Club World Cup. According to the Guardian, the 2029 edition, which could take place in Europe, could bring together 48 training courses.
The main idea, we quickly understand, is to have more matches (104 matches, compared to 64 with the 32-team format). But also to bring together more clubs, because the limit of two representatives per European country had excluded from the field big names like Liverpool, Barça, Arsenal or AC Milan, which Fifa would like to have in its competition.
Why is this bad news for PSG? Because with a 48-team format, there could be 8 matches per team to play. And because the capital club, as winner of the 2024-2025 Champions League, is currently the only European qualifier for the 2029 World Cup. PSG will not be able to escape this…
