Courtois: It’s a money game. UEFA is only thinking about their pockets, Belgium goalkeeper fumes

The Nations League is over, France won the trophy after beating Spain, while Italy beat Belgium for third place. It was the importance of this match that Belgium goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois questioned.

The coaches of both teams made a huge number of changes compared to the semi-final matches. For example, stars like Eden Hazard and Romelu Lukaku did not enter the game for Belgium, while Kevin de Bruyne came off the bench. The significance of this match is not really understood, third place in the Nations League is really not something appealing.

“This game is all about money. We’re only playing it because it’s extra money for UEFA. Look at both teams, how they have changed. If we were playing the final, we’d have completely different players. It just shows that we are playing too many games,” Courtois said sharply after the game.

Overall, overloading players is a big topic. Fans often argue that they take huge money to play, so let them play. But they just don’t realise that professional sport is incredible hard work and the human body is not a machine and also needs rest. Footballers, when they have 3 weeks off in a whole year, that’s a lot. And this situation is really not sustainable.

“Next year we play the World Cup in November, we will play again until the end of June. We’ll get injured. And nobody cares about the players. After a long season, you have to play 4 matches in the Nations League again. Why is that? Then you have 3 weeks off and that is not enough for the players to play for 12 months at the highest level,” continued a frustrated Courtois.

UEFA came out strongly against the clubs who wanted to organise the Super League. But Courtois says UEFA is preaching water and drinking wine.

“They are against the Super League, but then they will do the same thing, add more matches and create another competition, the Conference League. They can be angry at teams who ask for Super League all they want, but they don’t care about the players, they only care about their own pockets. And that’s wrong, the players have to stand up against it, ” the Real Madrid star urges his colleagues.

It is practically safe to say that the vast majority of footballers at the highest level agree with Courtois, with the likes of Toni Kroos and Gerard Piqué having spoken out against overloading players in the past.

“And we hear that they want to do a World Cup or a European Championship every year. And when will we rest? Never,” Courtois does not like it.

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