First FIFA is trying to win agreement from its members as to when international competitions will be played. Once this kind of unification has been accomplished, and now FIFA is shooting for 2004, the next step will occur. FIFA wants all professional leagues, everywhere in the world, to start and stop their annual schedules within the same calendar year, and to agree to take a full month off for international competitions and another month off when there is no competition, league or international, so players may rest. The latter is especially important to Dr. Michel D'Hooghe, a pioneer in sports medicine in soccer who currently serves as head of the Belgium Football Association, member of FIFA's executive committee and chairman of its medical commission. He too was in Miami for the symposium.
Players have no time to rest and to recuperate from injuries.
We rarely used to see these kinds of injuries before, and nowhere as serious. This is because the players simply do not have the time to recover. Players will carry an injury for years because they do not have extended periods free from competition. Eventually, FIFA would like to see a unified February-November calendar, with the month of June off. December would be the month of rest D'Hooghe and others are pushing for.