Premier League chief Richard Masters said the football calendar has reached a breaking point due to expanding international tournaments, speaking on Monday, November 11, in Prague at a meeting hosted by the Czech League Football Association (LFA).
The annual gathering of the World Leagues Association brought together representatives from 51 professional leagues. Masters told Sport.cz that the relentless growth of FIFA and UEFA competitions directly threatens domestic leagues that have maintained steady formats for decades.
“If you want to expand the World Cup and at the same time insert a new Club World Cup tournament into the middle of the football calendar, it will have an impact on domestic competitions,” Masters told Blesk.
While international governing bodies continue adding matches, domestic competitions hold the line on fixture volume. Masters pointed to the Premier League as a prime example of structural stability.
“The Premier League has had twenty clubs and 380 matches per season since 1994,” Masters told Blesk. “We start in mid-August and finish at the end of May. We haven’t changed anything in this model and we don’t take up any more space in the calendar than before.”
In contrast, international fixtures have multiplied significantly over the past two decades. FotbalPortal.cz analyzed the growth of senior men’s international tournaments, noting that total fixtures across major FIFA and UEFA competitions rose from 449 matches around 2006 to 755 matches recently, representing a 68 percent increase. That total reaches 943 matches—a 2.1-fold increase—when including the UEFA Nations League.
The fixture congestion extends beyond major tournaments to regular-season interruptions. LFA executive director Tomáš Bárta said that professional leagues share widespread frustration regarding the new international schedule.
“As all competitions, we are not entirely satisfied with how FIFA has set that calendar for the upcoming period,” Bárta told inFOTBAL, highlighting particular dissatisfaction with the newly instituted 17-day international break at the turn of September and October.
That extended autumn window forced national teams to play four matches in rapid succession, resulting in a wave of player injuries across Europe. “Every signal we have from all other competitions shows no one is satisfied with the seventeen-day international break,” Bárta told inFOTBAL.
Masters argued that football governance requires a fundamental realignment to balance the interests of clubs, players, and fans. He contrasted the consultation process at UEFA with the approach taken by world football’s governing body.
“Within UEFA, the European Leagues organization functions as an equivalent to WLA and has representation on the UEFA Executive Committee,” Masters told Blesk. “We may not like everything they decide, but at least we feel heard and invited for consultations. In the case of FIFA, that is not the case.”
Bárta confirmed that while the four-year calendar approved through 2030 leaves little room for immediate changes, leagues and national associations will continue pushing for a review of the autumn window. “We can certainly try to have some kind of fastest possible negotiation with them whether it’s really time for some revocation of this idea,” Bárta told inFOTBAL.
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