Footballers are right to threaten strike

There has been much talk recently of a footballer's strike. Manchester City midfielder Rodri was one of those making the suggestion. The players complaint is that they play too much football, which is unsustainable. And they are right Football bosses have to a degree always treated players as commodities but this seems to have reached a new level in the modern era. The owners themselves ofcourse are multimillion, if not billionaires, who actually produce little, if anything. The players are the means of production. They have literally become assets to be worked to near exhaustion in the name of making money. The intensity of the football fixture list has been growing over the years. Domestically, there is the Premier League, the Caraboa Cup and FA cups. But then for teams in European competition, there is another long fixture list. Manchester City's, Phil Fodden, played 72 games last season. On top of these competitions come the totally commercially focused club tours to countries like China, Australia and Hong Kong. These are pre and post season to promote the brand. The summer break for players to recuperate is contracting all the time. Then there are the international games - possibly the most farcical. Competitions like the World Cup and European Championships have been extended to month long extravaganzas to extract maximum returns for organisers. Then, unbelievably, as seen this year, less than two months after the end of the European Championships, the players are back competing in the Nations Cup. A competition put in place to replace pointless friendlies with another form of pointlessness. These fixtures in September, October, then March and April put pressure on domestic competitions, creating a pile up of fixtures in November, December and February. There has been a winter break engineered in January but this is being constantly eroded. The players are being treated simply as work horses, deployed as often as possible to generate money. Many get injured, with increasing numbers approaching burnout. At the present rate, it is estimated that Real Madrid and England star Jude Bellingham will play in excess of 1200 games in his career. By way of comparison from a bygone era, England captain, Bobby Moore played around 800 games (including 106 for England) in his career. Critics will claim players are played huge amounts, so must expect to do more. But a high salary is no reason to just work people into the ground. It also won't help club owners if their prized assets are injured on the sidelines. So, the players are right to threaten a strike. They are also getting support from a variety of authority bodies The Professional Footballers Association is one of the most successful trade unions in the world, so can be relied on to champion a better deal for players. What is for sure is a cut in games would benefit all parties concerned. Think of the bigger picture, rather than the need to simply sweat assets ( players) in order to make more money. Everyone is a human being at the end of the day and has the right to withdraw their labour