Off Topic Winter Break in Football

sensible i reckon... start a week earlier i reckon.

 

You reckon?

 

yup.. ah reckon!

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Ha. Only joking mate. I agree with starting a bit earlier, but don't really mind what they do as long as boxing day stays. love it in the pub with family. few beers and footy. love it.

 

I think its vital that stays. There is no reason to not have it. I feel any winter break in UK should be from jan 1st fixtures onwards to say jan 14.

 

Good shout.

 

Wouldn't work mito, just like there's no guarantee of snow at Christmas there's no guarantee of it in Jan but if the season restarts in mid Jan that's 6 weeks of the coldest and possibly wettest/snowyest weeks of the year left and postponements would take the league past its official finishing date(possibly)
The reason the premier league and FA churn out for not having a winter break is tradition, but they never gave a flying **** about the fa cup final having its own day at its traditional time of 3 o'clock on the first Saturday after the season or playing semis at neutral league grounds and keeping the trip to Wembley for finalists only.

 

You are right but I was thinking of how close it then gets to cl last 16s etc and you'd not want to go back in Europe cold either.

I think it's primarily for a break of some sort just to give top clubs a chance in Europe and maybe England at the end

 

It's effectively like saying "we've got too many fixtures for a nine month season so we're going to make it a eight month season instead"

 

That's true but how come it works in Spain and Germany? It can't all be down to the League Cup. Yes it means PL clubs have to play a few extra games but the German and Spanish teams have to play extra games in the European competitions as they invariably progress further!

 

Start earlier? Finish later? Have a set fixture schedule? Or they just man up and get on with it?

What about all the times their teams (domestic and international) have failed? Can they blame the winter break?

In short, I have no idea but I know we're making a pathetic excuse for international and, more recently, European failure. What happened to just not being good enough?

 

In Germany at least:

1. Smaller league, so four less league games
2. No league cup
3. DFB cup starts in August, so that get spread out more as well
4. Bayern progress further in Europe. Other teams, not so much.

You could possibly also make a case that the increased speed and phyicality of the PL makes each game more physically demanding as well.

I'm not sure how much of a difference it really makes though. As far as I'm aware, you don't hear too many complaints from the English-based foreign players that they're more exhausted after playing in the Premier League. I've always viewed the argument as a bit of a scapegoat to blame the national team's failings on.

 

Agree with Shteve. If clubs had a mid season break, they would be travelling thousands of miles for meaningless money making friendly's, hardly a rest for the players.

 

@Gerrez it's not about moving fixures into 8 months rather than 9 it's about spreading them out more evenly. For example, instead of having 10 games played over 3 weeks at Xmas, and then 4 games played in the 4 weeks either side.

You have 8 games over 3 weeks at Xmas, and then 6 games over 4 weeks either side.

Still play same amount of games obviously, just spread out a bit more evenly so have a couple more double weekers.


I personally think should just move a couple of games at Xmas, keep the boxing day game, and keep NYD but get rid of the game in the middle and possibly immediately after NYD which tends to be 2 or 3 days after.

Also FA should be more helpful to teams in Europe giving them extra days rest... however we all know wont happen as TV companies dictate fixture list far more.

 

You can't just have a break in the middle. The season is not split into two halves.

 

Where is @Gerrez sure he came up with a doozy of a quite about this

 

Two weeks in January should be suffice.

 

most other league in europe do it.

And I think a two week break after christmas fixutres but before the CL/europa fixutres is ideal.

simply reduce league cup semi final to one game and move it around a bit to suit.

 

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straight form the gerrez database? nice