Klopp: Club World Cup is 'worst idea ever implemented in football'
The 2025 Club World Cup introduced a new format for the competition, but Jurgen Klopp does not think it should have happened.
Jurgen Klopp has branded the Club World Cup the "worst idea ever implemented in football" due to its impact on player workload.
The new format of the Club World Cup, similar to that of a major international tournament, is intended to run every four years and take centre stage the year before the World Cup.
It sees 32 teams from across six football federations competing over a month for the title, though it offers little recovery for teams that go the distance.
Using the Premier League as an example, the Club World Cup began three weeks after the league season finished and will end four weeks before the start of the new top-flight campaign.
Klopp is now the head of global soccer for Red Bull, who were represented by Salzburg in the Club World Cup, though they failed to make it out of the group stage.
The German has been a long-term critic of the ever-expanding football calendar and believes the introduction of the tournament increases the risk to player welfare.
"Last year we had the Copa America and European Championship, this year the Club World Cup and next year then the World Cup," Klopp told German outlet Welt.
"This does not mean any real recovery for the players who are there, neither physically nor mentally. An NBA player, who also earns a big salary, has a four-month break every year. This is what [Liverpool defender] Virgil van Dijk got in his entire career.
"In the end, it's all about the game and not the surrounding aspects – and that's why the Club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football in this regard.
"People who have never had anything to do with day-to-day business or who no longer have anything to do with it come up with something."
