Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa voices 'serious doubt' over football's future amid fixture congestion

The Whites host Crystal Palace in the Premier League this evening at Elland Road, a game which starts a run of seven top flight matches in 29 days over the festive period ahead of the new year.

Leeds remain 17th in the standings before the meeting with Patrick Vieira's Eagles outfit, sitting three points above the drop zone having won just two games all season.

Bielsa - who was speaking ahead of tonight's match in LS11 - was quizzed over his side's drop in physical output this season and whether it was something that had been done on purpose.

The Argentine responded by noting that the Premier League as a whole had seen a fall in running stats amid a hugely congested fixture list that has seen three international breaks already.

Bielsa went on to cite his concern over the amount of games being played in general which was leading to a lack of preparation time for teams and managers, using next year's World Cup in Qatar as an example.

"What is clear, the calendar is so overcharged it doesn't bear in mind the development of the preparation," Bielsa said, over why players were finding it difficult to match last year's physical output.

"That's why I have serious doubts over the future of professional football because it is constantly commercialised and the product every time is constantly worse.

"It's considered to sell more games but it ignores whether teams are in better conditions to offer better results. I use the terms that the industry of football uses but it's difficult for me to think in those terms.

"The Premier League offers half of its players to the World Cup. It's interrupted ten days before the start of the World Cup. And the World Cup, which is the most desirable thing in football to play with the footballers and coaches of the national teams, the minimum possibility is of offering a developed team and the only thing that this generates is what's on show every time is worse."