Too many games risk to top players, says Germany’s Loew

Coach slams Fifa over work load

Berlin – Joachim Loew, who has rested all of his Germany stars for this month’s Confederations Cup, says football’s governing bodies are risking overloading the sport’s top players with too many games.

“It’s a dangerous game. One has the impression that things are already bloated and the fixture list looks anything but happy,” Germany’s head coach warned yesterday.

Loew has left out stars like Thomas Mueller, Mats Hummels, Toni Kroos, Mesut Ozil, Jerome Boateng, Manuel Neuer and Sami Khedira for the Confederations Cup – June 17 to July 2 – and included seven uncapped players.

To prepare for next year’s World Cup, Loew has said his main goal in Russia is to blood his next generation of stars, and has said nothing about winning the eight-team tournament. Germany face Chile, Australia and Cameroon in Group B with Portugal, hosts Russia, Mexico and New Zealand in Group A.

Loew has included only three of the squad which won the 2014 World Cup and none of the trio – defenders Matthias Ginter, Shkodran Mustafi and midfielder Julian Draxler – started the Rio de Janeiro final.

Having steered Germany to the semifinals of every major finals since 2006, Loew warns that plans by Fifa and Uefa to expand the top tournaments could lead to overload.

“After the end of the season, the players go for a few days on holiday, but can’t actually have a proper vacation because they have to follow a training programme.

“They have to be ready to go again after two weeks. Long term, that’s not good.”