PEP: DITCH A CUP!
He wants shake-up to protect players
PEP GUARDIOLA has sensationally called for English football to scrap one of its cup competitions.
England have been hit by serious injuries to strikers Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford this month. And Manchester City boss Guardiola blames the number of games in the relentless domestic schedule, claiming complaints made by managers about player welfare have been ignored.
‘With that number of games, I’m not surprised players break down,’ Guardiola said yesterday. ‘That is normal. Kane and Rashford are incredibly important players for England. The big administrators cannot complain because it is normal that this
happens. We demand too much from the players. We told them when we were with the Premier League. All the managers complained but they don’t care. ‘Eliminate competitions, take them out. Less games, less competitions, less teams, more quality, less quantity.’ The City manager’s proposal to remove a competition chimes with the view of EFL chairman Rick Parry, who admitted the future of the Carabao Cup was ‘clearly of concern’. EFL clubs fear revenues could reduce by
30 per cent in the coming years, and the purging of that competition would further impact those projections. The comments of Guardiola (below) are significant given City are one game from reaching a third consecutive Carabao Cup final and plan to rigorously defend their FA Cup crown. He also scoffed at next month’s winter break, when every top-flight club miss a weekend in a bid to ease fatigue, and said sarcastically the year should be increased to 400 days to satisfy the needs of the FA, Premier League, UEFA and FIFA. Meanwhile, La Liga president Javier Tebas has again called for City to be punished by UEFA for financial ‘doping’. City are being investigated over possible breaches of Financial Fair Play regulations and Tebas claimed: ‘I know the Manchester City figures, where their income comes from and that the numbers do not add up.’
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