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Club v Country
Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham head up list of six stars who could be forced to SNUB England duty as shock request made
The staggering number of games top stars could play next season has been revealed
ENGLAND stars face being forced to pick between club or country in the escalating row over Fifa’s controversial new £600million tournament.
SunSport revealed last week the growing anger from global league bosses and player unions over next summer’s planned 32-team Club World Cup in the USA.
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Now top league chiefs want it brought forward two weeks in June to ensure a proper summer break — but that would clash with Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
So England skipper Harry Kane and Three Lions team-mates Jude Bellingham, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer, Kyle Walker, John Stones and Jack Grealish would have to choose who to play for.
PFA chief Maheta Molango says Premier League players are ready to “strike” if they are forced to take part in the revamped club competition against their will.
While lawyers representing the World Leagues Association and international players’ union FifPro are drafting legal proceedings to stop the event taking place as planned from June 15 to July 13.
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The leagues have now contacted Fifa to suggest playing the four-week tournament — set to feature Manchester City, Chelsea, Kane’s Bayern Munich and Bellingham’s Real Madrid — from June 1 to June 29.
That would allow players a proper summer break ahead of the 2025-26 campaign. One leagues source insisted: “This is the only acceptable solution.
Who is in the Club World Cup?
There are 32 teams who will qualify for the tournament from around the world, 12 of which will come from Europe.
Four are selected via the Uefa pathway of winning the Champions League, while the other eight are picked via the ranking pathway.
Here are the European teams who have qualified:
- Chelsea
- Man City
- Real Madrid
- Bayern Munich
- Paris Saint-Germain
- Inter Milan
- Porto
- Benfica
- Borussia Dortmund
- Juventus
- Atletico Madrid
- RB Salzburg
“Now it’s up to Fifa to make a decision. If they do what we ask it will be for the players to decide who they play for.
“We have told Fifa they have already taken the first two weeks of June for international football, so that should be part of the window for the Club World Cup, not in addition to it.
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“It is a fact that the 2025-26 season is going to be even more condensed than normal.
“Because it has to end earlier, in mid-May, to allow players preparation time for the biggest and longest World Cup ever.”
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Prem chief executive Richard Masters is already making contingency plans.
They could see City and Chelsea MISS the start of the 2025-26 season if they go deep into the tournament, which launched as an eight-team winter event in 2000.
FifPro and the PFA say that stars need a minimum three-week break written into all pro deals.
Asked if strike action was a possibility, PFA boss Molango said: “We have reached that point.
“I have gone to dressing rooms and players have told me, ‘I’m not having it, we may as well strike’.”
Arsenal’s ex-head of elite performance Darren Burgess warned: “With the Club World Cup and internationals, Chelsea and City could play 86 games next season.”
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