2026-04-17 09:31:13
Jorginho believes winning certain tournaments should lead to automatic World Cup qualification.
The 34-year-old sportsman is upset that Italy have failed to qualify for the 2026 tournament for the third time in a row and he doesn’t think they should have even had to work to make the cut for the 2022 World Cup after winning the European Championship the year before.
He told The Times newspaper: “One thing I don’t understand is how you win the Euro, and you don’t qualify straight to the World Cup. I don’t understand how you win the Copa America, and you don’t qualify straight to the World Cup.
“Because when you win the league, you go to the Champions League. You win the Champions League, you go to the World Club Cup… in my opinion, you win, and you [should] get through directly, the same as all the other competitions.”
The Flamengo defensive midfielder thinks the change would help the world’s top players by cutting down the number of games they are involved in.
He said: “It’s impossible. Here [in Brazil], it’s even worse, honestly. Flamengo plays, what, 70, 75 games per year?
“Plus [more for those] who go to the national team. Which is an amount of games which is absurd.
“There is no one player who can [play that number of games and] not get injured, it’s impossible.”
Jorginho thinks players are treated like robots just because they earn well but he feels cutting the number of games they play will produce a higher quality of football.
Asked if players are treated like robots, he said: “Well, we have to be. From the outside, they think we have to be, because they just think, we are well paid, and we need to go [and play].
“And we go, because that’s what we are paid to do. But definitely, if there were less games in a season, the show would be better, the quality would go up. It would be just much better for everybody.”
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