Beth Mead calls for the well-being of players to be a key factor when planning debates. Photo: PA/Jane Barlow
Beth Mead calls for more to be done to protect players she says are «caught in the middle» of the scheduling debate between governing bodies.
England to play European Championship qualifiers among the 2025 women in June and July this summer, prompting concerns about the lack of any significant off-season on the calendar.
Asked about the summer window, Lioness striker Mead said: “There are a lot of discussions with players about what your club wants, what your country wants, what the schedule looks like, what it requires. It's hard. Something needs to be done for the welfare of the players, whether we as players have to fight for it or not.
“FIFA and UEFA have a lot of different scheduling issues and then we'll end up in the middle, which is probably unfair. We just need to be more realistic about how physically and mentally players and teams need to do it on such a consistent basis.
“We will continue to ask questions and push for the right answers or answers that we think will be more beneficial for all of us as a collective, [including] players from other countries. It's not just England. Hopefully we can get the schedule a little better because it's not ideal at the moment.»
It is understood that discussions are ongoing between clubs and national associations to determine where and when players will be able to train between the international windows in June and July and for how long.
Stanway warns of calendar burnout
Mead's England teammate Georgia Stanway, whose last summer holiday was in 2016, warned that players were at risk of burnout, saying: “What we want as players is for the decision to be taken away from us. This is potential burnout. But we play football, we love football, football is our life.
“Everything we do is aimed at achieving success on the field. And we know that for Euro 25 we will put ourselves in the best position because this is a trophy that we want to keep. I love football, so I'm actually very lucky. I'm proud to be in this situation and continue to play football. My family don't appreciate having to travel somewhere every year.»
Head coach Sarina Wiegman added: «There's no tournament [for England] this summer, so this should be an opportunity to get some rest. but because of the June window and the July window, how are you going to take a vacation?
“We have asked FIFA and UEFA to take note of this and change the situation in the future so that the players can have some rest. It's great that we have players who love football, but we have to take care of them, so we need to do something with the calendar.
“We can’t change that [this year], so you try to do everything you can to look after the players while at the same time performing at the highest level and minimizing the highest injury risks in collaboration with the clubs.” . The clubs and we as the FA [Football Association] have no control over the calendar.»
The words of Meade, Wiegman and Stanway are in line with concerns raised by Leah Williamson, who described the schedule as «unsustainable» when speaking to the Telegraph Sport in January. Women's football typically has at least one additional international window per year than men's football.
In that window, England will play Austria and Italy in friendlies at neutral ground in Spain on Friday and Tuesday respectively. Mead says England will have to put behind them the disappointment of finishing second in their Nations League group in December.
«As England we want to win everything that comes our way,» Mead said . “This is a goal and an ambition, especially because we have been competing at the highest level in the last few years. It's disappointing [not playing in the Nations League semi-final] but ultimately we failed. We need to put this behind us and now we move on and prepare for the Euros and we will play against good opponents this week.»
Свежие комментарии