What happened: Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez told El Chiringuito that the Club World Cup robbed his squad of a proper pre-season, forcing the team to play every three days throughout the campaign. Pérez explicitly tied the congested calendar to the wave of injuries that derailed Real Madrid's 2025-26 season. The remarks came alongside other Chiringuito comments addressing the leaked Tchouaméni-Valverde dressing-room incident.

Why it matters: The complaint lands as Pérez has publicly recommitted to the Real Madrid presidency and is steering the club through a managerial reset, with direct contacts already underway for José Mourinho per the same-handle timeline. Framing the season as a fixture-list casualty shifts blame from the dugout and front office onto FIFA's expanded competition, useful It also feeds the broader European debate over player workload that clubs and unions have been pressing all year.

What to watch: Watch for Real Madrid's formal managerial decision and whether the Mourinho contacts firm up, plus any LaLiga or player-union response to Pérez framing the Club World Cup as the root cause.