PFA Chief Calls Palmer 'Victim' of 'Sick' Football Calendar — SkimNews
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- PFA chief Maheta Molango labelled Cole Palmer a "victim" of a "sick" calendar at the Fifpro performance summit in London, asking "what's wrong about the industry" when five players pull out of the "single most proud moment" of their careers
- Five players withdrew from Thomas Tuchel's England squad ahead of the international window: Palmer, Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento, with Palmer citing "load management"
- Tuchel responded that Palmer "misses too many opportunities" — a stance Molango publicly rejected, declaring "you cannot cheat biology"
- Molango broadened the attack beyond England, citing recent withdrawals from other European squads including Germany's Kai Havertz, Dutch striker Brian Brobbey and France captain Kylian Mbappe
- Molango proposed a mandatory three-week summer break plus a three-week annual "retraining" period as a remedy
- Premier League chief football officer Rebecca Caplehorn backed the concept but said a six-week summer gap is "not feasible at present" without regulatory and calendar reform
Why it matters: Five England withdrawals in one window — joined by pull-outs from Germany, the Netherlands and France — give the PFA and Fifpro fresh ammunition to demand a structural rewrite of the football calendar, with the Premier League already conceding that a six-week summer break is impossible without regulatory change.
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