Jamie Carragher slams FIFA for treating players ‘like cattle’ ahead of grueling expanded World Cup in US heat

FIFA have been accused of treating soccer players like ‘cattle’ by former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher ahead of this summer’s World Cup.  

The CBS pundit, speaking in the build-up to the Champions League final between PSG and Arsenal, expressed concerns over the fixture congestion players are facing.

With the expanded 48-team World Cup set to kick off in North America just weeks after the domestic season concludes, fears are mounting over player welfare, extreme summer heat and a potential dip in on-field performance.

When asked if the relentless calendar and punishing American climate would negatively impact the tournament’s quality, Carragher delivered a blunt assessment.

‘Yeah, I’ve said for a while now, I think the top players get treated a little bit like cattle. They’re just expected to just play and play and play.

‘At some point you need to give players a rest,’ the former Liverpool star added. 

The ‘cattle’ analogy is difficult to dispute when you track the mileage of the modern superstar. Football has abandoned the concept of an off-season. 

The traditional summer break has been cluttered by new tournaments and lucrative international tours designed to extract every drop of value from soccer’s stars.

And with the Champions League final taking place on May 30, some players will have less than two weeks to relax before the World Cup kicks off on June 11. 

The former England international then turned his attention directly to FIFA’s controversial new tournament structures, taking aim at the heavy physical demands placed on specific European squads over the last 12 months.

‘And the Club World Cup, for me, I think it’s just a terrible idea,’ Carragher asserted. ‘You think of players now who played in that last summer – namely the PSG players  – and they’re now in the Champions League final.

‘A lot of their top players obviously go to the World Cup and want to do well on that,’ he added. ‘But something has to give eventually. You need to give players a rest.’

The upcoming World Cup will feature 104 total matches spread across three host nations, forcing squads to navigate long-distance travel alongside intense summer temperatures in major US metropolitan hubs.

Carragher warned football fans and the media to temper their expectations, urging the public to remember the physical and mental toll on the athletes before rushing to criticize lackluster games.

Carragher continued: ‘I wouldn’t say I feel for them; they’re playing at the highest level and they get paid really well – but if they start getting criticism for the performances at the World Cup, I think we’ve got to remember how much football they’ve played and the conditions that they’re playing in. 

‘And it just doesn’t seem like anyone who organizes football ever thinks about the demands physically, and mentally, on the top players,’ he added.

When asked if the players eventually need to speak out against the grueling nature of the expanded format, Carragher noted that union representatives have already attempted to push back against FIFA’s leadership.

‘I think they have as much as they possibly can,’ Carragher responded. ‘FIFPRO, the representative organization for professional footballers, have been quite strong.

‘But, how can you stop it when FIFA decide what they want to do? It’s really, really tough to stop it.’

The battle lines between the players and football’s governing body have previously spilled into the courtroom, with FIFPRO previously launching a series of legal challenges against FIFA.

In 2024, the organization filed a complaint with the European Union, accusing FIFA of abusing its dominant position by unilaterally imposing an unsustainable international match calendar. 

The combination of severe fatigue and weather conditions threatens to push the world’s best players to a breaking point, as newly released scientific data paints a grim picture of the climate awaiting squads in North America.

A report published by the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group revealed that a staggering 26 of the tournament’s 104 matches are highly likely to be played in extreme heat conditions that exceed the safety thresholds.

‘Using a statistical model applied to observations we find that in this year’s World Cup 26 games would be expected to take place in conditions of at least 26°C WBGT, of which 9 are in stadiums without cooling,’ their report read. 

Whether FIFA will heed the warnings of figures like Carragher remains to be seen, but the pressure on the governing body is only going to increase as the tournament draws closer.

You can watch the Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal on CBS Sports on June 11.