Jurgen Klopp struck the new World Cup of clubs, calling it the “worst idea never implemented in football”.
The former manager of Liverpool, who won the tournament with the club in 2019 in his old format, believes that the update version imposes an unnecessary burden on higher level players.
This triumph, the first of Liverpool in the competition, came when the tournament was a smaller event. Now the new version of 32 teams started just two weeks after the Champions League final and has already reached the phase of the last.
Liverpool does not participate this time, unlike Chelsea and Manchester City, and Klopp admits that it is relieved.
Addressing the German Welt, he said: “The club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football in this regard. People who never have nothing to do with daily affairs offer ideas.
“I understand those who say: but there are crazy sums for participation. But it’s not for each club. Last year, it was COPA and Euro, this year the club World Cup and next year the World Cup.
“This does not mean a real recovery for the players involved, neither physically nor mentally. Of course, they all earn a lot of money. But let this side a moment.”
🗣️ Klopp: “The club World Cup is the worst idea ever implemented in football. People who never have nothing to do with daily affairs offer ideas.
I fear that the players of next season will have injuries that they have never had before. Otherwise, it will happen at … pic.twitter.com/vf2ev8nyky
– Talk Football (@FootballTalkhq) June 28, 2025
Klopp highlighted the cumulative record on the health of players, using Virgil Van Dijk as an example.
“An NBA player who also earns a lot of money at four months in leave each year. Virgil Van Dijk did not even have this throughout his career. Tournaments like the Club World Cup cannot be played on the back of the players. I don’t wish anyone, but I have a serious fear.”
The tournament will take place until July 13, which means that clubs like City and Chelsea will only have five weeks before the start of the Premier League season on August 16.
Klopp thinks that this congestioned calendar will lead to important problems, warning: “Maybe everyone has not yet recognized the real problem, that the players of next season will suffer injuries that they have never had before. If this is not this season, it will happen during the World Cup or after.
“We are constantly telling them to go to every match as if it was the last. We tell them that 70 or 75 times a year. But that cannot continue like this.”
He added that the quality of the game itself could decrease if nothing changes.
“We must make sure they have breaks, because if they do not get them, they will not be able to deliver the best long-term performance, and if they can no longer do it, the whole product loses value for sellers,” he said.
Since leaving Liverpool last summer after almost a decade in charge, Klopp has played a new role as a global sports director of Red Bull, where he oversees his network of football clubs.
