Maheta Molango's Warning on Player Burnout Ahead of World Cup

Maheta Molango does not raise his voice, but the warning could not be louder.

“The World Cup should be the culmination of a dream,” the PFA chief executive says. “But the reality is that it will be the survival of the fittest. It’s not right.”

This summer’s tournament, he argues, will not showcase the best footballers in their best condition. It will expose a sport that has driven its stars to the edge, then asked for more.

‘Superheroes’ pushed past human limits

Molango’s message is stark: elite players are being run into the ground. Burnout is no longer a theory, it is the backdrop to an entire season.

“Now you see games which are not won by the best team, they are won by the fittest,” he says. “The players are superheroes. They are also very well paid. But that does not mean they should be pushed to the limit from a human perspective.”

He talks about “frightening” conditions, about a calendar swollen by new competitions and longer formats, about decision-makers who, in his words, “think you can just bully your way through.”

The risk, as he sees it, is twofold. First, to the players themselves. Second, to the sport people are paying to watch.

“There’s a real risk to the product,” he warns. “People will pay thousands of pounds to watch people ‘walking’ at best.”

A game decided by minutes, not moments

The numbers back him up. According to Opta, 19 Premier League players who have already gone past 4,000 minutes in all competitions this season will arrive at the World Cup having played the equivalent of an extra half-season.

Across Europe’s big five leagues, 11 of the top 20 players for minutes played are based in England.

• Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk sits at the top of that list with 4,761 minutes.
• His team-mate Dominik Szoboszlai is fourth on 4,556.
• The highest-ranked English player is Aston Villa’s Morgan Rogers, 11th with 4,382 minutes.

Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Arsenal and Nottingham Forest also feature heavily, their squads stretched by European campaigns and regular international duty.

Last year’s Fifpro report on the 2024-25 calendar, including the expanded Club World Cup, condemned “unprecedentedly long and congested seasons” and called for minimum four-week close-season breaks and winter shutdowns. The warnings, Molango believes, are being ignored.

In September 2024, Manchester City midfielder Rodri said players were “close” to strike action after a 63-game season. Weeks later he ruptured his ACL.

‘Maybe the players need to self-regulate’

Molango is no longer hinting at pushback. He is openly talking about it.

“Maybe the players need to self regulate,” he says. “That friendly you have organised, I’m not going to play it. The authorities have decided to encroach, we live in a world of bullies and they think you can just bully your way through.”

He is convinced that era is ending.

“People don’t seem to realise they are dealing with human beings and those human beings are not as stupid as maybe they think they are. They understand the power of the collective. They are not dumb. They are smart and switched on.”

He recalls a conversation with a player who had done everything right and still broke down.

“I was talking to one player who said to me: ‘I don’t drink, I don’t go out, I could not do more to be fit but I’m injured.’ He said to me, ‘You were right! When you came to see us two years ago about the calendar, we listened, but… you were right.’”

The idea of direct action is no longer abstract.

“There was one occasion this year in this country where they said to me: ‘Should we think about doing something?’” Molango reveals.

The PFA has traditionally avoided targeting domestic competitions, he says, because “it’s the bread and butter” for most members. But that restraint is not infinite.

“We have always danced to the tune of others,” he says. “But let me tell you, this is a generation of players who are so smart, so switched on, so committed and they see the bigger picture.”

La Liga’s Miami stand as a blueprint

If anyone doubts the power of players, Molango points to Spain.

He cites the case of La Liga’s proposed game in Miami. The league pushed ahead. The players refused.

“They wanted to play a game in Miami. They did their usual and just decided to crack on. The players just said we are not going. In the end, the game was cancelled.

“If there’s one league with strong leadership, it’s La Liga. There was no game because the players realised they are the product. You can sell tickets but we are not going.”

“That should have been a wake-up for football. If the players are not there. There is no game. They need to understand what the players think.”

Heat, hard pitches and ‘dangerous’ conditions

The calendar is not the only issue. Conditions are deteriorating too.

FIFA and UEFA have both been hammered for expanding the World Cup, Club World Cup and Champions League, while the Conference League has added yet more fixtures. In England, FA Cup replays have been scrapped, but the League Cup remains. The margins have been shaved, not reset.

Molango has seen the impact up close. He attended the Premier League’s Summer Series in the United States and spoke to players who took part in last year’s Club World Cup.

Chelsea’s Enzo Fernández described the temperatures there as “incredible” and “dangerous”, admitting they left him feeling “really dizzy”.

Molango echoes those concerns.

“The temperatures, climate and lunchtime kick-offs were a huge concern,” he says. “In fairness, FIFA listened over kick-off times and venues when it came to scheduling. But concerns are still there ahead of this summer.”

He remembers one afternoon in Philadelphia.

“I went to a game in Philadelphia at 3pm and with the temperatures, I couldn’t breath. The games were back to back and the difference between the early and the later games were like night and day.”

Players told him the same thing.

“I’ve spoken to players directly who said to me they couldn’t breathe. The grass is so dry because they are American Football pitches. You go to Atlanta and the pitch is so dry. They are not playing NFL.”

Kane, Rice, Bellingham – and the pyramid they came from

This is not just a fight for the elite, Molango insists. It is a fight led by them, on behalf of everyone.

The PFA is unusual among trade unions: millionaire superstars and League Two veterans pay the same dues, share the same structure, argue the same case. That, Molango says, is its greatest strength.

“You need to remember that most of them come from the football pyramid,” he explains. “Even the national team. Harry Kane has played for Leyton Orient. I don’t need to explain to him what it means. I don’t need to explain it to Kyle Walker. Declan Rice was rejected from an academy.

“They get it. Jude Bellingham played in the Championship with Birmingham City. I don’t need to tell him what it means. They get it. It’s not just a fight for them because it’s also a fight for whatever comes next.”

He draws inspiration from the Lionesses.

“I loved an expression from the Lionesses. ‘We want to leave the shirt in a better place.’ The Kim Littles, Leah Williamson. It’s not just about themselves. They want to leave a legacy and to leave the shirt in a better place. That was not necessarily the case 20 years ago.”

“I’ve got captains calling me and some are not even in the starting XI but they call me because they care. Both on the men’s and women’s side.”

The message is clear: the days when players were treated as the weakest link are, in his view, gone.

“What is for sure, the PFA is here for the right reasons,” he says. “People will not just bully through when they want. Luckily, we live in a country with laws and that will always be the last resort. The days of thinking the players are the weakest link are over. They are the strongest link.”

Declan Rice and the season that never ends

No one embodies the strain more than Declan Rice.

The Arsenal midfielder is heading towards a 70-game season for club and country, driven by a title chase and a World Cup on the horizon. He has already logged 4,246 minutes in all competitions, the 10th-highest total among Premier League players and the second-highest for an Englishman, behind Villa’s Rogers.

Molango does not expect sympathy for Rice when he turns up at the World Cup exhausted. That, he says, is precisely the problem.

“Who will have sympathy for Declan Rice?” he asks. “Everyone forgets the 68 games. If he’s lucky then he could get to 68 games even before the World Cup. Who remembers that? No-one. They will be busy saying: We need to win the World Cup.”

The demands pile up: more games, more money, bigger TV deals. The players, he fears, are being forgotten in the rush.

‘We talk about everything but the players’

Molango wants hard limits: a cap on matches, a fixed summer break, rules against relentless back-to-back seasons.

“We need to put the game back into the centre of the industry,” he says. To make the point, he reaches for a corporate analogy.

“This is like Apple having a board meeting and talking about everything about the next iPhone. There’s no point in talking about the shop or the sales person but it’s pointless if the next iPhone is bad.

“When we go to meetings in football, it’s the same. We talk about everything but the players. We talk about everything apart from what happens on the pitch. We need to get football back at the centre of the game.”

The data, he argues, is not vague. It is specific.

“The data says a maximum of 50 to 60 games a year. It’s a maximum of 45 back-to-back. A minimum of one month’s rest each summer.”

The response he hears from organisers is always the same.

“They say, ‘Sorry, but the calendar is locked until 2030.’ But when it comes to adding games, it’s no problem. But when it comes to reducing games, it’s locked.”

“It doesn’t work like this. They want it all. The people in the stadium. The broadcast and TV rights. The authorities are massively underestimating the way players have evolved over the years.”

The World Cup will kick off with the best footballers on the planet carrying record workloads, frayed bodies and fading energy. The question now is not whether they will keep going.

It is how long they are willing to be pushed before they finally say no.