Gareth Southgate begs Premier League help ahead of World Cup | Soccer

The Qatar World Cup takes place between November 21st and December 18th and it is feared that the players will suffer from extreme fatigue due to the increasingly busy and crowded football calendar.

Southgate has highlighted on numerous occasions the problems this will cause for players and recently admitted that he and the FA had asked that no game be played between Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United or Tottenham will be arranged November.

“We’ve asked the Premier League to think about things, but we also understand that the game program is very complicated,” Southgate said ahead of the English Nations League game against Hungary on Tuesday.

“We wouldn’t favor any of these big games, but to be honest the difference it’s going to make is pretty marginal.

“I think it’s manageable but the demands on the players are huge and I think we’re all aware that we can’t keep adding to the calendar.

“Due to World Cup timing we are losing camp in October so everything is compressed, competitions are added but nothing is taken out.

“In the end, I’m sure players will get more and understandably a voice in the process, and they should have a voice.”

While England are typically less reliant on ‘Big Six’ players these days, given the number of key players still playing for these clubs, the request is understandable.

In fact, around half of the current Three Lions squad plays for the Premier League elite and that doesn’t include players like Trent Alexander-Arnold, Ben Chilwell and Jadon Sancho, who will most likely make the plane to Qatar.

Still, Southgate will be happy whatever the result, although he admitted he has limited predictions about which players will be ready for the tournament in their first group game against Iran.

He added: “How much control will we have over the players? none.

“But the information sharing is pretty good medically and we get the performance data from the Premier League so you have some markers.

“In general we have decent relationships with clubs in that regard, but there will always be a bit of the unknown at this time.

“But equally, there’s always an understanding that clubs with big games might not want to share certain things too soon when they have players who could miss games.”

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