[Football] Winter Break

[Gazwag]

They'll still be able to entertain us, after a fashion, as many of them will use the 'break' to jet off somewhere sunny for a series of lucrative televised friendlies.

And on returning the manager then bleat on about the number of games the poor darlings have to play.

I can see the benefit or lower division sides who cannot afford to keep their pitch up to scratch, but then we would get matches like Newport v Spurs.

Its a definate no from me.

 

[DerekZoolander]

It's a load of old nonsense, all they'll end up doing is buggering off the America or the Far East or Australia and play games there for the £££ and then still end up complaining that the players are tired.

And all this bollocks that it would help the national team is rubbish as well, probably the fact that we're just a bit crap and that's why we don't compete at major tournaments.

What about all the foreign players who play in England, don't have a winter break and then turn up at the World Cup/Euros and play to their actual potential, they don't complain do they?

 

[Pevenseagull]

In the UK it's more likely to snow on March than December.

 

[DavidRyder]

NO! As an earlier poster said, International breaks are bad enough. A lengthier Winter break would be bloomin' awful. Especially as I haven't got Now TV at the moment and can't watch Only Fools on a loop. I also haven't got any sport channels, so can't even watch footie from the far corners of the earth for my fix. I couldn't buy a paper and read the footie results over a nice coffee in my local hot drink provider. I'd also feel obliged to do chores/DIY at home, as I'd have no games to reluctantly take me away from home, meaning the jobs have to wait a little longer. Yep, it's a No from me.

 

[Notters]

Exactly. It's actually part of the reason why we seem so unprepared for a bit of snow - we never know when it will happen so it's an utter waste of money for Brighton Council say to purchase and maintain a fleet of snowploughs when they'll only be used for a few days every four or five years or so.

If we had a winter break in January you can bet that at least half the time the weather will be shit in December and February, but great in Jan. So they'll switch the break to February, and we'll get six feet of snow on January 1st.

Yet they did exactly this and, I believe, spent millions on them (well gritters rather than ploughs) because of a couple of days of snow affecting the hills of Hanover bout 7 years ago.

 

[kevo]

Awful idea. It's meant to be played in winter. Surelt it will create more fixture congestion. Will the season now go on until the end of May?

 

[Windsor_seagull]

Lots of comments about weather - but I don't believe the winter break is anything to do with the weather (how many Premier League games actually get postponed due to poor weather - and when they occasionally do, it's as likely to be for fog which can pretty much happen any time).

To reference the quote below, it's about giving the players a rest. The idea being that even though they are professionals, and have bigger squads, so have the teams in Spain, Germany etc. Their reasoning is that rested Real Madrid probably has an advantage over a tired Man City team for example.

Just to be clear, I'm not saying that they should have a winter break, or need a winter break but just citing the reason why the Premier League are thinking about having one.

"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," the Premier League said in a statement.

 

[Albion 4ever]

I think the mid-season break is not necessary for the majority of teams, however fixture planning does need looking at.

To play 38 league games, plus a minimum of 2 cup games in 42 weeks or so is hardly expecting too much. The teams that compete in Europe have more midweek games, but they tend to carry vast, expensively assembled squads (normally full of internationals) who should be able to cope.

The current Premier League schedule has only 4 midweek games scheduled (excluding the possibility of games being moved for cup games/replays). However the Christmas and New Year schedule meant that teams played something like 6 games in 18 or so days. To play 16% of the matches in 2.5 weeks is ridiculous.

I would suggest that 2 of the 6 Christmas/New Year matches could be played as midweek matches earlier on in the season in August/September/October. This will result in a balancing of the season, rather than the current model which has an easy start and end, but busy December/January.

 

[nicko31]

Its all about getting teams to play matches overseas which will lead the road to games being played overshore. This ain't NFL

 

[djentist]

Really struggling to see how this would solve anything

 

[beorhthelm]

Its all about getting teams to play matches overseas which will lead the road to games being played overshore. This ain't NFL

has anyone related to club actually suggested this? i reckon the Asian market would rather watch the competitive league games and the US wouldnt give a monkey's testicle about soccer at the tail-end of their football season.

 

[jasetheace]

Have always favoured this as it kills two birds with one stones. Shouts of "Naïve" I hear you say...

Three week break for top two divisions

First weekend in January = FA Cup Round 3
Last weekend in January = FA Cup Round 4

Will encourage supporters of top teams to attend these earlier rounds of the cup as they know that this will be the last time they see their team for a while and will be hungry for it 3 weeks later.

Leagues 1, 2 and all Non-League continue with supporters of the top division teams upon presenting their season ticket given half price (or even just a fiver) entry at any game across the rest of the pyramid for the intervening 3 weeks.

I know, I know...vested interests and all that...

 

[Icy Gull]

Ditching one of the international breaks and moving it to a winter breaks is the only way I would be ok with it

What happens when National teams are playing when this International break is ditched? Where do teams get their players from!

 

[Durlston]

It wouldn't hurt to have a winter break over here, it makes sense to me.
Whether the money conglomerates will talk to the others, is another matter.
When I was over in Germany with the RAF, I used to go to Dusseldorf and watch the team train during their winter break, didn't seem to cause any hassles, plus any injured players were out there too!

And they have much more time to make thousands of porn films! So I've heard anyway......

 

[AmexRuislip]

And they have much more time to make thousands of porn films! So I've heard anyway......

No such thing on BFBS, but I did here that ZDF was quite fruity at times