World football’s players’ union FIFPRO has warned of the “urgent” need to protect player welfare in a new schedule for the international game.

The threat of player burnout around the winter World Cup in Qatar has highlighted the issue as a new calendar of competitions is negotiated to replace the current deal which ends in the summer of 2024.

FIFPRO’s report on player workload ahead of the tournament highlighted the number of matches played by top-level players, many of them back-to-back without a rest period, while the World Cup itself began just seven days after a club game for some Premier League players and ended eight days before the Boxing Day fixtures.

FIFPRO general secretary Jonas Baer-Hoffmann told the PA news agency: “It’s probably the number one topic players talk to our unions about – that we need to find better balance in the schedules and give them more time to recover.