Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham may be forced to snub England duty as huge row breaks out | Football | Sport

England stars may be forced to pick between playing for their club or their country next season, with the Club World Cup causing widespread controversy.

FIFA’s new £600million tournament is set to take place next summer, with 32 teams heading to the USA to battle it out for the trophy.

The competition kicks off a few weeks after the season has concluded, though questions have been raised about the timings of the tournament and whether it will allow players any time to truly rest ahead of the 2025/26 campaign.

According to The Sun, top league chiefs are calling for the Club World Cup to be moved forward a few weeks to ensure that all players are given a sufficient rest period.

However, the proposal would see the newly-founded competition clash with the FIFA World Cup qualifiers, which players, understandably, do not want to miss.

Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham, Bayern Munich star Harry Kane and Manchester City trio Phil Foden, John Stones and Kyle Walker would face the tough decision of ruling whether they will spend the summer competing for club or country.

A proposal is said to have been sent to FIFA to ask the organisation to consider running the four-week tournament from June 1 to June 29, which would force players to choose their allegiance – with the motive behind the idea being that FIFA should not be able to book out the entire summer for players and the two weeks of international football planned should also include the start date for the Club World Cup.

PFA chief Maheta Molango has revealed that players are willing to ‘strike’ against making a decision between playing for their country or in the lucrative new competition, saying: “We have reached that point.