The idea is simple - play one tournament at a time instead of multiplexing several tournaments through the course of the year. Let's take the example of a typical top tier EPL/LaLiga club schedule and see how this can work. Competitions: 1 - League (=EPL/LaLiga/BundesLiga/SerieA, etc), 2 - Cup (=FA Cup+League Cup/Copa Del Rey, etc), 3 - European Competition (=UCL/UefaCup etc) Assuming a 20 team league, you will have 38 league matches FA Cup + League Cup = ~10 matches (if you reach final) European Competition = 13 matches (if you reach final in UCL) Noise matches (Super Cups, World Club Cups/Intercontinental Cups/Intl friendlies, qualifiers, etc) = x [we will get to this later] = total of 61 matches!!!! (+x) ... That's a lot of matches! Not to mention if you have to play in qualifiers for europe, had to qualify for the league, play in Europa, etc etc Also, if you see, the season basically starts mid-August and runs till the end of May which is a duration of 9.5 m