- Bayern's leader ascribes the additional strain to the national squad responsibilities.
Dreesen, the CEO of Bayern, believes the increased strain on professional footballers isn't the clubs' fault, but rather international teams scheduling more friendlies and tournaments. As he argued, "If the workload of top players has heightened, it's not due to clubs, but rather national teams adding extra friendly matches and competitions," he shared with the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung".
He referenced his analysis of the situation at the German record champions. "Our players, on average, had less than 50 competitive games annually over the past five years. Decade before that, it was an average of 52. So, it's not more, but actually less games for the club," he explained.
The discussion about professional footballers' workload and its causes has been a hot topic for months. With the new season, there will be additional competitive games in the Champions League, and the following summer, a new Club World Cup with 32 teams will be held, including FC Bayern. FIFA, the world football governing body, underlines that the overall number of appearances by professionals hasn't significantly increased in recent years. The number of games played in a season also relies on a team's performance in knockout-phase competitions - for both clubs and national teams.
Dreesen advocates for more club involvement abroad
Dreesen used these stats to back up his call for Bundesliga clubs to increase their overseas activities to boost revenues. "Before the last season, only two Bundesliga clubs took trips to non-European countries. Now, it's six. In the Premier League, it's at least half of the clubs. The message is clear: We all need to be more prominent," he said.
The CEO of Bayern, Dreesen, suggested that the national team's scheduling of additional friendly matches and competitions could be a contributing factor to the increased strain on professional footballers, not the clubs. Despite the increase in competitive games for FC Bayern in the Champions League and Club World Cup, the number of games played annually by their players has actually decreased over the past decade. Dreesen advocated for Bundesliga clubs to increase their overseas activities to boost revenues, as he observed that more Premier League clubs are participating in non-European tours.
