Man City warned to 'stop moaning' about Club World Cup by rivals as request to delay Premier League season is rejected

The Timeshas reported that Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano raised the issue of delaying the start to the Premier League season to allow more rest after competing at the first summer FIFA Club World Cup across June and July. But no-one else at the shareholders' meeting on Thursday backed his position, leading City to "make their displeasure clear". An un-named representative from another club is said to have pointed out that the Club World Cup is not obligatory but promises lucrative pay-outs, implying City want to have their cake and eat it too.

The Club World Cup has moved from its annual December slot, a mini-tournament involving only a handful of sides, to a 32-team quadrennial competition akin to the international World Cup. Manchester City are among the European representatives as a winner of the UEFA Champions League in the past few years. But so too are Chelsea, and they perhaps read the room a little better in that Premier League meeting by not asking for significant domestic concessions to help them further their own interests.

"We're having this imposed upon us, particularly by FIFA," Premier League official Tony Scholes said on the subject of the Club World Cup last week. "So that there's an element of saying why adjust our competition when we've been imposed with a competition we don't agree with."

Only 34 days separate the end of the Club World Cup, which finishes with the final at MetLife Stadium on July 13, and the start of the Premier League season, scheduled for August 16. Elite players across Europe are still reeling from a lack of rest off the back of Euro 2024 last summer, while the next World Cup for international teams takes place at the end of next season.

City could keep banging the drum about changing the dates of next season, but it doesn't seem as though they are going to command any support when it doesn't benefit the majority of clubs. Delaying the start date would only be a short-term fix anyway, given that the season would then have to be squeezed because it cannot run long, with the 2026 World Cup immediately following it.