Winter Break Agreed in Principle by FA, Premier League and EFL

[Marc]

3 hours ago, LFCMadLad said:

Ifs and maybe’s mate. They could also get a quarter final draw against Manchester Utd at Old Toilet and double what they would get at White Hart Lane in a fifth round replay, as well as being on TV. 

 

Yes, but there’s a lot less chance of that happening. They’d have to win the shootout- unlikely, then draw an away game which is a 50/50 and then hope the away game is at Old Trafford or Emirates which are only two that would rival an away at Wembley financially. 

[Dan+]

4 hours ago, Smiley Culture said:

Any Winter Break enforced by The FA/Premier League would just see multiple teams embark on tours across Asia and the US, only to then moan a few weeks later that their players are fatigued, it’s just a money making exercise dressed up as “warm weather training”. 

How they’re going to fit 38 league fixtures alongside the two domestic cups, European competitions if you’re decent and enforced International breaks into a shorter period of time, whilst not extending the season, is going to be interesting. 

Simple, they'll bin off the League Cup. They make moves like these where the real motive is hidden and they give the cliche "to help the national team" before then solving the problem they created in doing so by making another change, that once again benefits those at the top.

The structure of football is awful now. Everything about it is geared towards the glory hunters and the fans in this country just sit there and let it happen.

[RandoEFC+]

There is no need for any winter break at all. Clubs over here have made do for decades and the Premier League is one of the most if not the most successful league in the world on and off the pitch so you can't argue the lack of a winter break has been damaging.

Players and managers moan about playing through the winter because guess what, people moan. Literally everyone moans because deep down we're basically all little bitches who want everyone else to make our lives easier. Give the little bitches a winter break and they'll shut up for five minutes while they think about what to moan about next.

If it ain't broke don't fix it and for me it ain't broke.

[Dan+]

Look at the way the fixtures were scheduled this year and last year and tell me they weren't done deliberately so they could enforce this bollocks.

[Dave]

So what's the next excuse managers are going to use because they can't win games in Europe?

My guess is The Carabao Cup.

[Smiley Culture]

This doesn’t really address the overall issue, does it? Footballers in the UK apparently play too many games. This isn’t a solution to that, at all. With the introduction of a break, it doesn’t reduce the number of games played, it just increases the amount of games played in an even smaller window either side of a two week break. 

The only way to combat this is to lose some games. The most likely is the League Cup, the LDV Vans Trophy of the Premier League. It only becomes interesting if you progress quite far and a day out at Wembley actually is a faint possibility. You could deny deserving teams of FA Cup replays by scrapping them but I really don’t see how that would make a difference as many sides don’t play their strongest teams in every round.

An idea that simply won’t happen is to get rid of some teams from the Premier League. A sixteen team league loses eight games from the season and frees up enough space for players to be rested enough between games. Arguably the quality of the league increases, the prize money increases due to less sides to share it with, which compensates for the loss of matchday income and there’s less dross in the league for the neutrals. 

[6666]

February seems like a weird time to have the break. I would've said the last two weeks of January so that the disruption transfers and transfer rumours has on games can be avoided as it really goes overboard during that time.

[Burning Gold]

2 minutes ago, 6666 said:

February seems like a weird time to have the break. I would've said the last two weeks of January so that the disruption transfers and transfer rumours has on games can be avoided as it really goes overboard during that time.

If the concern is avoiding excess injuries caused by cold weather, February makes sense as it tends to be the coldest (look outside for exhibit A). I do see your point though, and since the PL has just made the stupid decision to close the summer transfer window before the season starts, it would be consistent to time the winter break to minimise disruption during the January window.

[Dr. Gonzo]

22 hours ago, The Palace Fan said:

So what's the next excuse managers are going to use because they can't win games in Europe?

My guess is The Carabao Cup.

I'm pretty sure the league cup has been used as an excuse for being shite in Europe before tbh.

[Dan+]

There excuse making culture in English football is a complete embarrassment. Is everyone else this bad?

[ScoRoss]

There are 55 possible matchdays for clubs (taking out European Dates and International Dates) from 5th August 2017 to 19th May 2018.

1 Community Shield Date

38 Premier League Match Dates

6 FA Cup Dates (Not including for replay)

5 League Cup Dates (Maximum for teams not in Europe)

That would leave 5 dates unused.

[Stan]

can't wait for the Winter Break to come in at start of February and then games are called off end of Feb/start of March if we'll get weather like we have now in future years. Cramming the rest of the season up between March and May...

[Dave]

The FA, Premier League and EFL are close to agreement over the introduction of a winter break, Sky Sports News understands.

The FA council were being briefed on Wednesday on the progress of talks which were prompted by FA chief executive Martin Glenn almost two years ago.

Sky Sports News understands the majority of planned changes are agreed in principle - with the first break pencilled in for January and February in 2020.

[Dr. Gonzo]

If they want to give players more of a rest midseason they should do away with pointless international friendlies first before trying to make this league more shite.

[UNORTHODOX]

As long as we still get our football over the Christmas period then I don't mind them having a winter break.

[Stan]

1 hour ago, The Palace Fan said:

with the first break pencilled in for January and February in 2020.

 

5 minutes ago, UNORTHODOX said:

As long as we still get our football over the Christmas period then I don't mind them having a winter break.

 

[ScoRoss]

 

[Dave]

You just know eventually they'll use this as an opportunity to play matches overseas for more money.

[Smiley Culture]

Can’t wait for the managers who were previously moaning about too many games moaning about too many games in a shorter space of time. 

I don’t think this has done anything to ensure players’ remain fit and without fatigue as the games you’d have in the two-week downtime will have to be shoehorned into the calendar before or after the break and with the domestic cups, European Football and International Football all in the calendar as well as Premier League games, I can’t see this being any use whatsoever. 

[Honey Honey]

34 minutes ago, Smiley Culture said:

Can’t wait for the managers who were previously moaning about too many games moaning about too many games in a shorter space of time. 

I don’t think this has done anything to ensure players’ remain fit and without fatigue as the games you’d have in the two-week downtime will have to be shoehorned into the calendar before or after the break and with the domestic cups, European Football and International Football all in the calendar as well as Premier League games, I can’t see this being any use whatsoever. 

It's just 1 game.

It means now when we get knocked out of the FA Cup 3rd round we will not only have 3 weeks off in March but an extra 2 in February. 

[Harry]

 good thing to do. Especially following a world cup summer.

[ScoRoss]

Should have just gotten rid of cup replays, and then they could have avoided the nonsense of playing the FA Cup midweek. 

Television companies already have the FA Cup spread over four days, surely they are going to do the same for this now and have clubs arguing about not having the same length of break.

[RandoEFC+]

What's the actual justification for this again? Because they do it in countries like Spain and they do better than us in Europe recently?

This will not help our teams perform well in Europe (and it's pretty retarded that this gets used as an argument when an English club reached the Champions League final last month). In fact by blacking out existing fixtures around Christmas/New Year when there's no European football, and moving those games to a different part of the calendar, most of which does include European football, all you achieve is increased fixture congestion in those parts of the year.

If you want to reduce fixture congestion either reduce the Premier League to 18 teams like the Bundesliga or scrap the League Cup or get rid of replays in the FA Cup. None of those would be my preferred options though, I'm in the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" camp on this one.

[Dan+]

On 6/8/2018 at 12:48, The Palace Fan said:

You just know eventually they'll use this as an opportunity to play matches overseas for more money.

It's the same process every time. They always gradually change it and because the changes are so gradual, they always get away with it. They always make it that bit worse each time and eventually before people realise it, things are shit.

I've long realised the "to help England in a tournament" is nothing but a buzz-phrase to shut people up. It's a trump card that justifies any little change. Yeah, that'll really help England - who are highly likely to run into foreign Premier League players in tournaments, who will also supposedly benefit from this change.

Utter madness but people swallow it time and time again. It's painful to see.

[ScoRoss]

Seem to be doing alright without this...

Germany have the longest break and look what it did for them...