Atlético CEO Gil Marín calls for per-player cap on LaLiga appearances to ease fixture burden

Miguel Ángel Gil Marín has put a concrete proposal to UEFA that would cap the number of LaLiga matches an individual player can be made available for across a 38-game season, suggesting a limit of 31 or 32 appearances per player. The Atlético de Madrid CEO outlined the idea at the World Football Summit, held ahead of Atlético’s home fixture against Osasuna at the Metropolitano.

Gil Marín shared the panel with Javier Gómez, LaLiga’s corporate general director, and Maheta Molango, president of the English players’ union. Speaking in his capacity as a UEFA Executive Committee member representing European clubs, he said he raises the same proposal regularly in that forum.

As reported by Mundo Deportivo, the mechanism would work by informing a coach that a specific player is only eligible for 31 or 32 of the 38 scheduled Liga fixtures, leaving the club to manage squad rotation around that ceiling. Crucially, it is an individual-availability cap rather than a reduction in the total number of games a club plays across the season.

Gil Marín framed fixture volume as one of modern football’s defining problems, connecting it to a broader shift in how the game is governed. He credited LaLiga’s regulatory framework with driving commercial growth — growth that has taken Atlético past €500 million in annual revenue and through 14 consecutive Champions League group-stage qualifications under Diego Simeone.

On the financial pressures pulling in the opposite direction, Gil Marín was direct: “UEFA and FIFA want more matches because it generates more money and more power, and power consolidates and guarantees perpetuity. We must find a point of equilibrium that is essential, above all, for the big clubs.”

Whether UEFA moves toward adopting anything resembling an individual-availability cap remains uncertain, but Gil Marín’s repeated advocacy inside the Executive Committee suggests that calendar reform will continue to surface in the ongoing tension between clubs and governing bodies.