Pep Guardiola, Enzo Maresca criticise FIFA Club World Cup after Jurgen Klopp: 'It's not football'

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola and Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca have come out in support of Jurgen Klopp, who has labelled the FIFA Club World Cup as “the worst idea ever implemented in football”.

Klopp, currently Red Bull’s “head of global football”, had told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag that the FIFA World Cup has crowded the football calendar and it meant there was no time for players to recover mentally or physically.

Guardiola agrees with Klopp over Club World Cup criticism

Agreeing with the former Liverpool manager, Guardiola said that he understands Klopp’s arguments and would also “defend them.”

“Jurgen – we fought together many, many times, I know where the idea comes from, we fought a lot in England, when we went to UEFA meetings, especially on the Premier League, (about) the calendar, to try to (increase the) quality,” Guardiola said before Man City’s match against Al Hilal.

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“So the players rest, and the managers rest, (then) you have more quality, so it didn’t surprise me, I understand him, I respect him.

“I have an incredible relationship with Jurgen, when we were rivals… I understand his argument, because his argument I would defend as well.”

However, Pep said, despite the criticism the tournament has received, he is “proud” to be competing in the tournament.

“At the same time we’re in a job, we follow FIFA, UEFA, Premier League, Serie A… the managers are not going to organise the competitions, everyone has their own role, they organise the competitions,” continued Guardiola.

“I have said many times, I am so proud to be here, because in the end many, many teams complain about the competitions, because they are not here, otherwise they would love maybe to be there.

“Their media will be here, their supporters will be here, there will be their income in terms of money to be here, and they will be happy to be there.”

Nonetheless, Man City were eliminated from the Club World Cup on Monday after losing to Al Hilal on Monday.

Maresca blasts weather rules of FIFA Club World Cup in US

Chelsea’s Maresca criticised the weather rules at the tournament in the USA as the match against Benfica on Saturday was suspended for almost two hours due to a thunderstorm in Charlotte.

Italian manager Maresca was unhappy that the match lasted for four hours and 38 minutes due to US safety regulations forcing Chelsea and Benfica to go off the pitch. The whole game lasted for four hours and 38 minutes.

“It’s not normal to suspend a game. In a World Cup, how many games are suspended? Probably zero. In Europe, how many games? Zero,” said Maresca.

“For me personally, it’s not football. You cannot be inside for two hours. It is something completely new,” said Maresca, who questioned whether the U.S. - along with Mexico and Canada - would make a suitable host for next summer’s World Cup finals.

“I can understand that for security reasons, you are to suspend the game. But if you suspend six, seven games that means that probably is not the right place to do this competition,” he said.