When Rodri suggested last September that players could strike over their increased workload, it seemed this summer’s newly expanded Club World Cup was the last thing Manchester City needed.
The influential Spanish midfielder may also have been making a point about the expanded Champions League format, but the additional tournament, shoehorned into a period normally kept free for rest, was clearly a bone of contention.
“I think we are close to that,” said the Ballon d’Or winner when asked if players could stage industrial action over their seemingly ever-growing fixture commitments. “If it keeps this way, (there) will be a moment that we have no other option, but let’s see.”
As the season then unfolded, with City suffering an uncharacteristic blip – failing to put up a strong defence of the Premier League title they had won for the previous four years and exiting the Champions League before the last 16 – it looked like they would need the break to regroup.
Yet as the time has neared, no doubt helped by the announcement the winners of FIFA’s latest showcase event could pocket close to £100million, the tone has changed.
If Pep Guardiola has reservations about fixture congestion, injuries and a lack of preparation time for next season – all more than hinted at over the past season – he is now keeping them to himself.
“This is a very, very serious competition,” the City manager said recently with typical vigour. “In the summer, the whole world will be watching this.
“A big number of the top teams in the world will be competing in this tournament and I can assure you, we’re going to give it our best shot. We’re going there to win it.”
City were the last team to win the Club World Cup in its old guise in December 2023, but that only required them to win two games in the space of four days.
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The new quadrennial tournament is a different proposition, featuring 32 teams and lasting a month, following a format used for the traditional World Cup.
City have been placed in Group G for this summer’s edition in the United States alongside Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca, Al Ain of Abu Dhabi and Juventus. Their regular Champions League foes Real Madrid could lie in wait in the first knockout round.
Other notable sides involved include newly-crowned European champions Paris St Germain and the beaten finalists Inter Milan, Premier League rivals Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund.
There are 12 European entrants in total with six from South America, six from South America, four each from Africa and Asia, five from North America and one from Oceania. Brazil has the most participants of any one country with four.
The tournament, which begins on June 14, has had plenty of detractors, particularly from Europe, and its success remains to be seen.
For City the message is now clear, however. They would rather be involved than not.
“It’s an honour,” Guardiola said. “It means in the last seasons we have done really well. It’s a new competition for us and I’m looking forward to it.”
