DO WE OR DONT WE need to break the winter months' ......... and is it good for the championship! what about all the "international breaks" the AFRICA cup .. winter break then off to the cup! January window ... would it be affected Players would still need to train .... maybe all go off to sunny climes for a fortnight just some q's needing to be asked
I would be in favour of it personally, but that would certainly result in some fixture congestion for certain teams at other parts of the season.
Bet your life if they have a break in say January it will be decent weather. Whereas you can guarantee it will snow in the December and February.
Are they planning this for just the prem? or as a prelude to all teams , which will then have to many fixtures because they don't play for 2 or 3 weekends so we better reduce the leagues 18 in prem 20 in championship etc?
I can bet the big clubs will love it, saying they need the break whilst planning exhibition games in China or the states.
This is a good point. If it is implemented, they should be limited to a single friendly or something similar. Completely removes the intention otherwise.
It would depend where on the calendar this would be scheduled in and whether it's all divisions or just the Prem, or just the Prem and Championship ? If they chose to have a two week break over Xmas and New Year then it takes away some of the excitement (and big crowds) over the festive period. And if this includes all leagues, then come the restart of the season, in January and February some clubs could face a massive fixture backlog if there is bad weather/postponements. Appreciate that this wont affect the Prem or most of the Championship clubs.
Yeah good shout, I think winter breaks in European leagues tend to be after the New Year? January time mainly.
I was thinking of the Italian dates then. Pretty sure they have a couple of cup rounds in quick succession afterwards too, though with my track record so far I'm probably way off the mark...
I did note this point, however I think I said by 4 teams when actually missing 2 weekends would be 2 games so just losing 2 teams would give 4 spaces....! ?
What so have a two week break but arrange a friendly in the middle? Won’t that be the same as playing a league game, but without the twelve hour flight there and back?
Ignoring the made-up 12 hour flight (it could quite easily be in Europe), I'd argue that a single friendly match across a two week period is significantly better than 3 or potentially 4 high intensity matches across that same period, yes.
Although there's an official league break, many countries fit in a "Winter Cup" competiton to keep players match fit - they don't all piss off to the beach in warmer climes for a holiday. I believe the Czech's have something called the Tipsport League for the winter break and many European clubs play each other in a series of friendlies to develop their game during the break.
So how long would you shut down weeks or months-our weather is so different even across our little island. Traditionally big crowds at xmas,do the clubs want to lose that. Lots of ifs and buts.
No winter break for the EFL. Earlier in the week the subject a winter break reappeared for the domestic game in this country, however the EFL have flatly ruled it out. The idea of a Winter Break in English top flight football is hardly a new idea but recent talks over its introduction are now said to have been 'constructive'. It was reported that a Winter Break is was being seriously considered for introduction when the new television rights packages are agreed. Talks about such an idea to bring us more into line with the top leagues across Europe - Germany, France, Spain and Italy - already enjoy a mini break during the more, shall we say challenging weeks of the weather, and it has long been suggested that the England national team would gain greater success over our rivals if we took a step in that direction and didn't push players through winter. It must be said England might have more chance if they could perform, pass to each other and take penalties for balance. However, back to the point. With discussions about a Winter Break having been held for the last several months, those ongoing talks are believed to have been constructive and it's only a matter of time before a formal agreement is made and the expectation is it will become a joint announcement with the new television deal, given further changes that will bring to the Premier League as cash continues to be chased and remains the primary driver. Such a break wouldn't be in December, so the traditional festive crush of fixtures for fans wouldn't be effected, but the break would take place in January with the presumption being it would come into play after what is now becoming a New Year's Day round of games. With the television deal announcement expected imminently, a provision for a Winter Break was included in the tender documents that were sent to broadcasters, so clearly it's on the cards for 2019/22. A Premier League statement read. 'The Premier League has been in discussions with the FA and EFL for several months regarding the challenges of the increasingly congested English football calendar and ways in which we can work together to ease fixture congestion while also giving players a mid-season break. Provided space can be found in the calendar, we are open to this in principle and will continue constructive discussions with our football stakeholders to seek a workable solution.' The original story as carried on Vital can be found by Clicking Here. With the Premier League statement referencing talks with the EFL, yesterday evening the BBC quoted EFL chief Shaun Harvey addressing the matter, and whilst he admitted talks had been held, it was not under consideration for outside of the Premier League itself. The simple fact being that at EFL levels we already play more games than the Premier League, so the idea of having a break and finding slots to make up matches would just be thoroughly unfeasible. 'We have been involved in the discussions to start with. The EFL won't observe a winter break. We have a 46-game season. We need as many Saturday 3pm kick-offs as possible. The reality is if it is about giving the England internationals a break at the Premier League clubs, we can carry on without negatively impacting on that objective.' Read more: http://www.rochdale.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=520828#ixzz56Vqednia
NO NO NO NO NO!!!! This is all a ruse from the big 4/5 teams to get the size of the Premier League reduced. Sure it starts with the notion of fixture congestion (not sure how a 2 week break reduces this), then it will be as everyone on here says, lucrative friendlies in Asia under the premise of needing to keep players fit (nothing like competitive games for match fitness/sharpness), then it will be the break they wanted means they are playing every weekend and mid-week and with the TV and Champions league schedules it won't work - which will ultimately lead to the big boys bullying the PL bosses into reducing the size again so they get what they want. Or, if not as well they will bemoan playing in the FA Cup and push to get it as devalued as the League Cup. It's about time the PL grew some balls and said fine, but we'll revert back to smaller PL match day squads and useable subs, as part of the rule change that increased these in the first palce was to help clubs overcome fixture congestion and allow greater squad rotation.
