The Colombian Association of Professional Soccer Players (Acolfutpro) revealed this Wednesday a report showing how the packed calendar of Dimayor tournaments has increased the number of injuries this year.
It is worth remembering that, despite the fact that the Copa América is being played this year and that the U-20 Women's World Cup will be played in Colombia in September, The Dimayor club assembly did not significantly reduce the number of dates of the first division championship.
According to the Acolfutpro registry, so far in 2024, first division teams have had 71 injuries, of which 41 correspond to muscle problems.
“The competitions began on January 18, so the teams did not have time to do a proper preseason. In six weeks, ten rounds of the BetPlay Dimayor League have been played, in addition to the Super League, BetPlay Cup, Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana matches. On average, each team plays a game every four days!” says the report.
Luis 'Cariaco' González
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Acolfutpro criticizes the championship planning
The footballers' union created a table showing how many days of rest the teams have had between matches. Although the average is 4.3, there are clubs that have had much less time off.
Santa Fe, for example, plays a game every 3.4 days; Jaguares and Millonarios, each 3.5, and Junior, each 3.6. On the other hand, there are clubs with more time between matches, such as América and Cali (5.1) and Boyacá Chicó (5.0).
“Here you can see that there are teams that in the span of a month and a half play up to 17 matches, adding their international commitments or BetPlay Cup matches, while others only play 14. The average number of days between matches is 4.3, which is insufficient if we take into account the long trips and connections, which sometimes take a whole day,” explains Acolfutpro in its report.
There are cases like the one that Medellín has just experienced, which had to play its Copa Sudamericana match against Tolima this Tuesday, 48 hours after facing Águilas Doradas in the League, which forced it to use substitutes on Sunday.
“There is a clear imbalance since on many occasions there are teams that arrive at games with more rest time than their rival,” Acolfutpro insisted. “Although adjustments have been made on the fly, it is still a calendar with a high load of matches to which we must add travel by plane or bus, that also affect the rest and recovery periods of the footballers, who also cannot have their mandatory rest day a week, as established by the CST,” he added.
The association insisted that the collective negotiation that is pending be carried out to agree with the footballers on the competition calendar.
See the list of injured players this semester
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