Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has insisted that the expanded Champions League format features ‘too many games’ amid football’s increasingly saturated schedule.
The newly-introduced ‘Swiss’ system will see each team will play a minimum of eight league phase games – up from six in the previous group stage – while 16 teams will also participate in a two-legged playoff to reach the round of 16 (and join eight automatic qualifiers).
While Henry believes the expanded slate of games is a positive in terms of his TV career, the former Arsenal forward urged people to consider the physical and mental strains that top players face.
‘I think for us, for CBS, it’s just outstanding – more games, to be able to talk about more games,’ he began on a CBS Champions League Zoom call. ‘But there is a but for me, because I’m going to go on the side of being a coach: too many games, too many games.
‘[As] an ex-player I don’t know how those guys do it. As a pundit, I love it, but as an ex-player and as a coach, it’s too many games. [Jude] Bellingham is already injured. It’s tough to play a season, and then go to the Euros, and come back and play [in the] national team, and more games, and more games left, more games right…’
‘So as much as I want to see Milan [versus] Liverpool and I want to see a Manchester City in there, I want to see the best players on the field, being able to perform whenever they can,’ the former Monaco manager continued. ‘That’s also part of the product – having also the best players on the field being able to perform all the time. So yes, it is outstanding for us. But if I was a coach [in this Champions League], I don’t know if I would’ve found it outstanding.’
Henry’s comments come after players’ union FIFPRO released its recent workload report – which revealed that 54 percent of 1500 players monitored worldwide experienced ‘excessive or high workload demands’ during the 2023/24 season.
Henry, who coached France’s U-23 men’s Olympic squad to a silver medal over the summer, also suggested that the increasingly bloated schedule takes a mental strain on players.
‘Do the math for a player that plays every game,’ he said. ‘So let’s not only talk about physically. Let’s talk about mentally and what it does to a player to always perform. Forget about the money and the outcome. I’m only talking about just the players and their integrity.’
