Matthias Sammer (56) does not consider criticism of the expanded Champions League to be convincing in terms of the burden. In future, 36 instead of 32 teams will take part in football’s premier class. Since the game is played in a league system, each starter has at least two more games than before. “That is marginal for a single team,” said the former sports director of FC Bayern Munich and DFB sports director at a Prime Video event in Munich. “That’s in the tank.”
Looking ahead to the FIFA Club World Cup starting next June, Sammer said: “I think it’s fantastic when the Champions League is well organised. And I also find the Club World Cup interesting. Because if the Club World Cup doesn’t take place, all the clubs we’re talking about will still go to America, Asia or Australia.”
Bayer Leverkusen, FC Bayern, VfB Stuttgart, RB Leipzig and Borussia Dortmund will be competing in the UEFA Champions League from mid-September. The issue of workload is not particularly serious, Sammer continued. “If you don’t have that, friendly matches will take place because the clubs want to generate money, because they want to go abroad. Now the whole thing is organized and I think that’s good.”
“Better than any cups or summits”
Sammer prefers “competitions like this a thousand times more than any cups or summits” that big clubs organize themselves. The Borussia Dortmund agent, who is also working as an expert for Prime Video in this Champions League season, also said of the star players: “You can’t demand that a club should give you 18, 20, 22 million a year and at the same time say: I would like to have a lot fewer games and I would also like to have more vacation.” At the same time, Sammer was open to further discussing these topics.
“This extra football from the players’ perspective is taking place at a stage of the season when everything is still in the tank. It would be much more noticeable if you said the European Championship lasted a week longer,” said former national player Patrick Owomoyela. “Only very few teams reach this absolute majority of games. Not everyone feels this extra.”
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