The Premier League have confirmed publicly that they will not be offering Manchester City and Chelsea a delayed start next season if they reach the final of the Club World Cup.

Both teams have qualified for the revamped FIFA tournament as a result of their Champions League success in the last four seasons, and will take part in the new-look format that sees 32 teams from across the world play a tournament at the end of the regular season.

However, with the final less than five weeks before the start of the Premier League - and even less before the Community Shield - it runs the risk of players being burnt out before they even begin the new campaign, with no time for rest, recovery and pre-season.

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Pep Guardiola revealed in October that the club had asked for more time between one competition ending and the other beginning, but that the Premier League had refused. And the league's chief football office Tony Scholes has explained why they have not allowed any leeway.

“We’ve looked at it,” he told reporters. “We’re having this imposed upon us, particularly by FIFA, so that there’s an element of saying why adjust our competition when we’ve been imposed with a competition we don’t agree with.

“The more significant element is we simply can’t, the calendar is squeezed as much as it can be at the moment and we can’t afford a delay to the start of the season.”

City take on Wydad Casablanca, Al Ain and Juventus in their group for the Club World Cup, and are hoping that they will have more of a full squad that enables them to push all the way after injuries have wrecked their Premier League title challenge and put them at risk of an early Champions League exit.