Match Calendar: "The process of devaluing the national championships is underway" (D. Terrier)

"While UEFA has beefed up its flagship competition this season, FIFA's overbearing control of the calendar continues to worry everyone involved in the game. We can only hope - but nothing is less certain! - that it will reach its climax with the Club World Cup next summer, because the process of devaluing national championships, in both their sporting and economic dimensions, is now underway, as we predicted it would be," declared David Terrier, president of the UNFP, on the French professional players' union website on 02/03/2025.

Terrier, who is also president of FIFPRO Europe, was speaking the day after the Paris Saint-Germain - LOSC Lille game (4-1, Matchday 24 of the 2024-25 Ligue 1 McDonald's season), which Lille would have liked to have postponed (but which the LFP refused), as they are due to take on Borussia Dortmund (Bundesliga) in the first leg of their match in the Round of 16 of the Champions League on Tuesday 04/03/2025 (kick-off at 21:00 CET).

"We've played 38 matches and, to protect us, they're making us play on Saturday (in Ligue 1) and Tuesday (in the Champions…