PFA chief Maheta Molango says Cole Palmer is a 'victim' of a 'sick' schedule
On 29 September 2026, Professional Footballers' Association chief executive Maheta Molango told the Fifpro performance summit in London that Chelsea forward Cole Palmer was a "victim" of a "sick" schedule after Palmer withdrew from the recent England squad.
Five players — Palmer, Marcus Rashford, Declan Rice, Kobbie Mainoo and Tino Livramento — pulled out of Thomas Tuchel's squad ahead of the latest international window, a pattern Molango said exposed an unsustainable match calendar and a "survival of the fittest" environment. The PFA and global players' union Fifpro have repeatedly warned about the impact of an increasingly congested calendar on player welfare.
Molango asked why the industry was forcing withdrawals when national selection is the pinnacle for players, saying: "When England see five players who need to withdraw when the single most proud moment a player has is to be called up for the national team, you just ask yourself, what's wrong about the industry?" He singled out Palmer and questioned his absence, saying: "You see people like Cole Palmer, someone who would have played four consecutive summers in a row had he gone to the World Cup, and you wonder why is he missing?" He added: "He's missing because he's a victim of the calendar and that's something that needs to absolutely trigger the alarm bells."
In response to Palmer withdrawing from England's squad for "load management", Tuchel said the forward "misses too many opportunities". Molango disagreed with framing the issue as reluctance to play, arguing players love international football and warning of physical limits: "They [England players] love to play for England. They love to play for their national team. But unfortunately your body puts a limit to it. You cannot cheat biology."
Molango stressed the problem was not confined to England and cited recent withdrawals across Europe, naming Germany's Kai Havertz, Dutch striker Brian Brobbey and France captain Kylian Mbappe. He posed a series of questions about the state of the game: "Is that really the football that we want?" and "Is it the football where the people who make us dream just cannot perform? For me it's very worrying." He concluded: "What we've seen over the last few years is a system that's sick, that's ill, because it ultimately revolves around obtaining votes and power consolidation."
To address the issue, Molango proposed a mandatory three-week summer break and a three-week "retraining" period every summer. He presented those measures as part of the players' union response to fixture congestion and its effects on player availability.
Rebecca Caplehorn, the Premier League's chief football officer, said she was supportive of the concept in principle but cautioned it could not be implemented under the current timetable: "It's something we're really supportive of, conceptually, but the challenge is that it just doesn't fit into the current calendar." She added: "There's always something that's preventing us having that six-week gap that we want. Without regulatory change and change to the calendar, it's not possible for us to deliver that."
