Fifa Hailing Of Club World Cup 'a Fiction' Says Player Union

Fifa's hailing of its Club World Cup has been labelled "nothing much than a fiction" by nan president of starring players' world national Fifpro.

In a scathing statement, Sergio Marchi appeared to comparison nan world governing body's president Gianni Infantino to nan Roman emperor Nero.

And he besides claimed Fifa "chose to proceed expanding its gross astatine nan disbursal of nan players' bodies and health".

It comes aft BBC Sport learned that Fifpro was not invited to a cardinal gathering connected subordinate use that Infantino held connected nan eve of nan Club World Cup last pinch representatives from different unions.

Last year, amid a backlash complete nan description of nan Club World Cup, Fifpro filed a ineligible complaint against Fifa, claiming it had abused its domiciled nether European title rule by adding much unit to nan fixture schedule.

Fifa has denied nan claims, and astatine nan play Infantino called nan tourney "the astir successful nine title successful nan world".

But tensions person now intensified, pinch Fifpro president Marchi insisting that while nan Club World Cup "generated enthusiasm among galore fans and allowed immoderate of nan world's starring figures to beryllium seen successful a azygous tournament… this title hides a vulnerable disconnect pinch nan existent reality faced by nan mostly of footballers astir nan world".

Marchi added: "What was presented arsenic a world ceremony of shot was thing much than a fabrication created by Fifa, promoted by its president, without dialogue, sensitivity, and respect for those who prolong nan crippled pinch their regular efforts.

"A grandiloquent staging inevitably reminiscent of nan 'bread and circuses' of Nero's Rome, intermezo for nan masses while down nan scenes inequality, precariousness, and nan deficiency of protection for nan existent protagonists deepen."

Fifth Roman emperor Nero threw spectacular games and events which made him celebrated pinch mean people, but is better remembered for his brutality and cruelty.

At nan weekend, Fifa said location was a "consensus" pinch subordinate unions that location should beryllium astatine slightest 72 hours of remainder betwixt matches, and players should person a rest period of astatine slightest 21 days astatine nan extremity of each season. However, that is simply a week little than Fifpro had been asking for.

Fifpro - which represents 66,000 men's and women's players astir nan world - has antecedently expressed interest astir nan utmost power faced by players successful nan US during nan tournament, demanding much elasticity from Fifa connected kick-off times and protocols. Infantino has admitted that nan power was "an issue".

But Marchi said, "the tourney was held nether unacceptable conditions… that put nan players' beingness integrity astatine risk".

He added: "This business must not only beryllium denounced, but must beryllium firmly warned against. What happened cannot beryllium repeated nether immoderate circumstances astatine adjacent year's Fifa World Cup.

"We person been informing astir nan overcrowded schedule, nan deficiency of beingness and intelligence remainder for players, and nan deficiency of speech connected nan portion of Fifa. This measurement of organising tournaments, without listening to nan federation that represents nan world's master footballers' associations, is unilateral, authoritarian, and based solely connected a logic of economical profitability, not quality sustainability.

"We cannot proceed to play pinch nan wellness of players to substance a trading machine. There is nary spectacle imaginable if nan voices of nan protagonists are silenced."

Fifa has been approached for comment.