Football’s governing bodies should not introduce new competitions and top-flight leagues should reduce the number of teams they have to ease the fixture burden on players, former Barcelona and Spain defender Gerard Pique said on Wednesday.

Pique’s comments came in the same week FIFPRO Europe, the European Leagues association and Spain’s La Liga filed a joint complaint about Fifa’s international match schedule to European Union antitrust regulators.

Fifa has introduced a new Club World Cup featuring 32 teams from next year and has enlarged the World Cup to 48 teams from 2026. Uefa also increased the number ofmatchdays in the Champions League from this season and introduced the Nations League in 2018.

Pique said it was the responsibility of all football organisations to find a solution.

“There are too many games, and we are seeing now players saying ‘listen, we are getting injured. There are games every three days, we don’t have time to rest in summer’,” the 37-year-old toldThe Summit, part of Leaders Week London.

“I would suggest to reduce the games,” he added when asked what he would do if he were in charge of globalfootball. “Go to the leagues and say, ‘listen, instead of 20 teams, why you don’t do leagues of 16 teams...

“And at the same time, I would go to Uefa and say, ‘why you create this Nations League, which is the new competition that is difficult to follow’ and I will go to Fifa and say, ‘okay, don’t do this FIFA World Cup of clubs that you created now’...

“I understand that they want to generate more revenues, but for the sake of football, I think that it could be much better to have less games, more premium and more exclusive (experiences) and it will be much easier also to follow from the audience point of view, and for players it will be less games.”

Pique, who retired in 2022, won nine La Liga titles and three Champions League crowns at Barcelona andnow owns the seven-a-side football-gaming-entertainment venture.

Recognising concern

The president of Major League Soccer (MLS) Don Garber says he recognises the concern over Fifa’s enlarged 32-team Club World Cup to be hosted in the United States next year after La Liga chief Javier Tebas called for the tournament to be scrapped.

Garber spoke of his excitement at the chance for MLS teams to compete against the rest of the world but that he understood why there may be concern about fixture congestion when asked about his response to Tebas’s declaration.

“I will say, we all need to be mindful of the calendar, and I understand Javier’s views,” he said.

The 2025 Club World Cup is due to run from June 15-July 13.

Reuters