Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola complains about crowds during US tour: ‘Players will die’

NEW YORK – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola complained about crowds during the team’s pre-season tour of the US as the team prepares for what could be another season of more than 50 games.

“Institutions like FIFA, UEFA and the Premier League do not think about the players, so the managers have to think about it,” he said at a press conference on Saturday. ‘Otherwise they die. It is too much.’

City lost 3-2 to AC Milan in a friendly at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, and although several key players such as Erling Haaland and Jack Grealish started, a handful of stars were missing from the team. This also applies to Kevin de Bruyne and Rodri, who reached the knockout stages of the European Championship this summer and are still on holiday.

Guardiola has long been a critic of the schedules players face, especially at the top level. City played 59 matches during the 2023/24 season, including appearances in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, the FA Cup final and the UEFA Super Cup, a reward for winning the Champions League at the end of the 2022 season /23.

The manager is one of several high-profile figures to speak about the number of players since FIFPRO Europe and the European leagues filed a complaint against FIFA with the European Commission last week. The global players’ union and the continent’s top leagues claim FIFA’s international fixture calendar is too saturated and unsustainable to ensure players can consistently perform at top levels.

Despite being a constant critic, Guardiola seems to have resigned himself to the fact that the overloaded agenda is a reality for the foreseeable future.

‘There is no solution. That won’t be the case either [a] solution because this is not the intention [a] solution,” he said.

Guardiola discussed complicating favors such as the desire for players to compete for their national teams in international competitions and for clubs to travel for pre-season tours.

“The clubs have to travel to spread our brand around the world,” he said. “The European Championship deserves to play, the national teams deserve to play. FIFA, UEFA, many competitions, they want to defend this product and make games.”

Guardiola acknowledged that while the situation is far from perfect, City are no strangers to it.

“The competition is already there and you have to adapt,” he said. “It is what it is and we have to adapt. [Did] didn’t happen this season – it happened four, five, six, seven years. Every time it is the same and I would like to have a good preparation, but this is impossible… We are going like previous seasons that we were successful, with the same calendar as this one.’