RULES around player workload must be part of the agreement on Champions League reform, world players’ union Fifpro urged today.

European football’s governing body Uefa and the continent’s clubs and leagues seem to agree that a so-called Swiss system – involving the tournament’s expansion from 32 teams to 36 and extra matches in the early stages – should replace the existing group phase from 2024, but disagree on the number of additional games.

Fifpro says that changes to the footballing calendar are not its biggest concern, campaigning instead for a framework to protect individual players from excessive workload.

“The leagues are trying to negotiate a smaller increase in the number of games, but that doesn’t resolve our problem,” general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann said.

“What we have stated for some time now is that any increase in the number of games, without putting in a protective framework for the health of the players, is something we wouldn’t support.”

Baer-Hoffmann said that the framework must cover such issues as the duration of off-season breaks, in-season breaks and rest days after international windows.

“These kind of elements which manage load on an individual basis mean you don’t necessarily have to play fewer games, you have to spread the number of games among more players so that every individual player is taken care of better,” he said.

Fifpro has also found that two thirds of players suffer at the hands of poor governance in leagues around the world, often resulting in unpaid wages. It therefore wants a player hardship fund to form part of the new financial agreement.

“Any contribution an international tournament can make in the form of a fund to help players who are really living through hardship and are not making substantial salaries to start with … that would be very important to do,” Baer-Hoffmann said.

“We are having solidarity considerations to clubs and national federations — usually that money doesn’t benefit those players.

“So why not direct some of the money to this group who are really hard-hit by some of the governance inadequacies that exist among clubs and national federations?”