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Premier League Rejects City Request to Delay Next Season’s Games after Club World Cup

Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Manchester City - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - September 28, 2024 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reacts. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Manchester City - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - September 28, 2024 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reacts. (Reuters)
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Premier League Rejects City Request to Delay Next Season’s Games after Club World Cup

Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Manchester City - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - September 28, 2024 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reacts. (Reuters)
Football - Premier League - Newcastle United v Manchester City - St James' Park, Newcastle, Britain - September 28, 2024 Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reacts. (Reuters)

The Premier League has rejected Manchester City's request to postpone the first two games of the 2025-26 season to help the players recover after their FIFA Club World Cup campaign in the US, the club's manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday.

City and Chelsea are the two English clubs who have qualified for the expanded month-long Club World Cup set to start on June 15. The Premier League's season will begin in August.

An increasingly packed football calendar has been a concern among a growing number of players and managers. A report by global players' union FIFPRO said some players get only 12% of the year to rest.

The Premier League did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

City midfielder Rodri said in September that players could be close to strike action over the time they are required to play. A knee ligament injury has since put him out for the season.

"I don’t know if we will play more games than the treble year (2022-23)... maybe we'll play less games," Guardiola told reporters.

"The Premier League has not allowed us to postpone the first two games for our recovery. Thank you so much. They don't postpone these games so that will be the moment of, oh, what do we have to do?"

He said the Club World Cup will make it even more difficult for clubs to manage player workload.

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Norris Feels ‘Nowhere Near’ His Best as Formula 1 Title Contest Heats up Inside McLaren 

Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)
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Norris Feels ‘Nowhere Near’ His Best as Formula 1 Title Contest Heats up Inside McLaren 

Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)
Formula One F1 - Bahrain Grand Prix - Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain - April 13, 2025 McLaren's Oscar Piastri poses on the podium after winning the Bahrain Grand Prix alongside third placed McLaren's Lando Norris and McLaren team principal Andrea Stella. (Reuters)

Lando Norris may be top of the F1 standings, but he feels like he's driving "nowhere near" his best and can't work out why.

After placing third Sunday at the Bahrain Grand Prix — won by his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri — Norris said he felt far more confident last year, when he lost out on the drivers' title to Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

"I’m confident that I have everything I need and I’ve got what it takes," Norris said. "I have no doubt about that, that I’m good enough, but something is just not clicking with me in the car."

Norris, who qualified sixth for Sunday's race, saw Piastri close to within three points of him in the standings.

"As soon as you're not gelling (with the car), then you're going to be in issues, and that's what I have at the moment," Norris said.

Even though he's still leading and won the season-opening Grand Prix in Australia last month, Norris said he hasn't felt comfortable all year with McLaren's car — widely considered the fastest on the grid.

Last year, "I knew every single corner, everything that was going to happen with the car, how it was going to happen. I felt on top of the car. This year could not have felt more opposite so far," Norris said.

"Even in Australia, I won the race but never felt comfortable, never felt confident. The car was just mega and that’s helping me get out of a lot of problems at the minute, but I’m just nowhere near the capability that I have, which hurts to say."

Norris and Piastri combined to help McLaren win the constructor title in 2024, the team's first since 1998.

Teammate battles which shaped F1

The years when F1 has been dominated by a single team have produced some of the most bitter rivalries, as McLaren witnessed in the late 1980s with a feud between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost.

More recently, the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg turned sour during their championship fight at Mercedes in 2016.

Norris and Piastri are keeping things civil, though there were awkward moments last year when Norris was asked to make way for his teammate in a race.

McLaren has faced tests from other teams, with Verstappen winning in Japan last week for Red Bull and Mercedes' George Russell competing with Norris and Piastri on Sunday. Still, the pace of the other teams seems to be fluctuating from race to race, and McLaren's isn't. The gap of 58 points on the constructor standings to second-place Mercedes after just four races is vast.

"We haven't had a consistent challenger week-in, week-out," Piastri, a 24-year-old Australian, said. "As long as we have the best car, it's going to be tight between Lando and I."