“Everything he says is right” – Jamie Carragher extends support to Thibaut Courtois after his bold interview slamming UEFA
Thibaut Courtois has been hailed by Jamie Carragher after the Belgian goalkeeper gave a no-holds-barred interview criticizing UEFA's money-grabbing practices. The former Liverpool defender heaped praise on Courtois, who spoke at length about his dissatisfaction with one of football's main governing organizations.
Courtois criticized UEFA for crowding the football calendar and not caring about player welfare. He spoke about this in an interview after the Nations League's third-place playoff match between Belgium and Italy. Italy won that match 2-1.
Brilliant interview @thibautcourtois everything he says is right, especially about 3rd place play offs in tournaments, an absolute waste of time those games. twitter.com/skysportsnews/…
Carragher came out in support of the Real Madrid goalkeeper. He tweeted:
“Brilliant interview @thibautcourtois everything he says is right, especially about 3rd place play offs in tournaments, an absolute waste of time those games.”
During the post-match interview, Courtois did not pull any punches when talking about UEFA. He said:
“This game [third-place play-off] is just a money game, we have to be honest about it."
“This game we play it because for UEFA it’s extra money and an extra game on TV, for us okay it’s a good game because it’s against Italy. But look how much both teams changed their line-ups, if both teams had been in the final it would have been other players playing, so this just shows that we play too many games.”
"They don’t care about the players, they just care about their pockets." - Thibaut Courtois slams UEFA
Thibaut Courtois said in the interview that nobody cares about the players anymore. He outlined how seasons were becoming more and more jampacked, jeopardizing players’ fitness. He further added:
“Next year we have a World Cup in November, we have to play maybe until the latter stages of June again, we will get injured.”
“Nobody cares about the players anymore. In June you will have to play four games of a Nations League game after a long season, then you will have two weeks holiday and it’s not enough for players to be able to continue 12 months at the highest level.”
🗣️ "They don't care about the players they just care about their pockets."
Thibaut Courtois accused UEFA and FIFA of prioritising money over player welfare after Belgium were beaten 2-1 by Italy in the Nations League third-place play-off. https://t.co/0RbBu0Ux6h
“If we’re never going to say anything we’re always the same. They made an extra trophy in the Conference Cup (Europe Conference League). It’s always the same, they can be angry about other things and wanting Super Leagues but they don’t care about the players, they just care about their pockets.”
“You hear that now they want to put a European Championship and World Cup every year, when will we get a rest? Never. So in the end top players will only get injured and injured and injured and then that’s the end of it.”