Manchester City blocked by Premier League over potential delayed start to 2025/26 season amid FIFA Club World Cup fate | OneFootball

The Premier League will not grant Manchester City, or Chelsea, an extended period of rest ahead of the restart of the English top-flight season, despite involvement at the FIFA Club World Cup.

Pep Guardiola and his players are due to jet off to the United States between the end of the ongoing European season and the start of the 2025/26 campaign, after FIFA revamped and relaunched their Club World Cup format.

From this edition, the tournament is expected to feature 32 clubs from across the globe competing in a traditional World Cup system beginning with a group phase, with the draw having now decided City’s fate amongst others.

The reigning Premier League champions, who are enduring arguably their most difficult season under Pep Guardiola, are due to face off against Italy’s Juventus, Morocco’s Wydad AC, and the UAE’s Al-Ain.

Manager Guardiola has already stressed upon his growing concerns over the fixture calendar amid expanding competitions, and those concerns are only expected to be increased following the latest comments from the Premier League.

As confirmed by the Premier League’s Chief Football Officer this week, neither Chelsea nor Manchester City will be given space to start the 2025/26 season later if they get to the final of the FIFA Club World Cup.

Either club faces a break of potentially just 33 days and minimal pre-season training if they were to win the competition in the United States this summer, although Tony Scholes believes the “calendar is squeezed as much as it can be” insisting it is a problem “imposed upon us, particularly by Fifa”.

The English top-flight’s Chief Football Officer explained, “We’ve looked at it. We’re having this imposed upon us, particularly by Fifa, so that there’s an element of saying why adjust our competition when we’ve been imposed with a competition we don’t agree with.”

Scholes continued this week, “The more significant element is we simply can’t, the calendar is squeezed as much as it can be at the moment and we can’t afford a delay to the start of the season.”

For the time being, Manchester City have plenty to think about in the ongoing season as they continue to battle for a top-four place in the Premier League, and brace themselves for a last-16 play-off tie against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League.

Perhaps the club’s best chance of silverware in a troublesome campaign comes in the FA Cup, and they travel away to League One side Leyton Orient on Saturday lunchtime for the fourth round of the competition.