Winter Break: Good or Bad?

[IJPS]

Seems to get a mention in a few papers today.

Could be good for player recoveries, less injuries..

People also argue against winter breaks due to the traditional xmas fixture list, but who ever said that it had to be around Christmas and new year. A break from the 5th Jan to 20th Jan could be good. Matches in lower leagues are often subject to frozen pitches and bad conditions anyway.

So for me very good idea if in january. Wouldnt like to see boxing day and new years day fixtures disappear.

 

[sedgred]

Jessie's get on with game you wimps.

 

[Bryn Gunn]

Sky and the like would never allow it to happen.

 

[andover red]

Sky will do whatever Man Utd tell them to do.

 

[Bryn Gunn]

Sky will do whatever Man Utd tell them to do.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

If you had a winter break, the teams would just fly off to other parts of the world to play friendlies.

Wouldn't it all get a bit weird if the break was during the January transfer window. Players could have too much time to tout themselves around.

 

[Eddie Yates]

f***ing shit idea

 

[Raymondo Ponte']

All a bag ov ballix.

 

[Flaggers]

What happens if you have a winter break in (say) January and it's mild, then is snows like crazy and freezes in February and games are postponed in numbers?

 

[Flaggers]

The title options should be "yes, no or f***ing stupid idea"

 

[Ricochet]

Considering we had about 3 international breaks at a fortnight a time before Christmas I think having another break wouldn,t be really necessary,paid enough money and it never stopped us winning a World Cup champions leagues European cups etc in the past,and with the size of the squads these days they should just get on with it.

 

[andover red]

It's got f*** all to do with the English national team doing better and everything to do with giving the rich clubs a better chance in the champions league. The national team thing is just a convenient excuse to convince people there is a good reason behind it. Just like the bollocks about the new academy rules, which are also f*** all to do with the fortunes of the England team and everything to do with lining the pockets of the greedy *****.

 

[Strummer]

It works very well in Germany, but the Bundesliga has only 18 teams so there is less pressure on the calendar as a gap of 3-4 weeks (and only a single cup competition in Germany) doesn't have the impact on fixture congestion that you'd see over here.

 

[valspoodle]

The fixture congestion is the reason I am against it, we just don't have a reliable winter in terms of snow and frost in January. A Winter break would either push the season back until the end of June (playoff games) or result in many more mid-week fixtures, and if the weather turned sour in February this would result in fixture chaos.

 

[I'm Red Till Dead]

If they feel the fixture list is too congested, why not spread it over a longer period of the year.

There is currently about 3 months between the end of the standard games for most of the leagues and the start of the next. Cut it to 2 months (It should leave some time for the EURO'S World cup),and spread the games out more. Cut the playoffs down to a single game in the semi final game, with 3rd and 4th getting the home games.

If Champions/Uefa league clubs think they play too many games wouldn't the obvious solution be to reduce the number of games played / competitors in those competition

 

[Britt Assombalongalonger]

If they feel the fixture list is too congested, why not spread it over a longer period of the year.

There is currently about 3 months between the end of the standard games for most of the leagues and the start of the next. Cut it to 2 months (It should leave some time for the EURO'S World cup),and spread the games out more. Cut the playoffs down to a single game in the semi final game, with 3rd and 4th getting the home games.

If Champions/Uefa league clubs think they play too many games wouldn't the obvious solution be to reduce the number of games played / competitors in those competition

If the Euros/WC were on, players would go a full year without a holiday/break. Also pre season is very important for building up fitness again.

Just get rid of the League Cup. No-one gives a shit unless they're in the semis, and there's not the same excitement at smaller clubs when they draw a PL team. League Cup out, and try and get Sky to show more JPT.

 

[Bryn Gunn]

If the Euros/WC were on, players would go a full year without a holiday/break. Also pre season is very important for building up fitness again.

Just get rid of the League Cup. No-one gives a shit unless they're in the semis, and there's not the same excitement at smaller clubs when they draw a PL team. League Cup out, and try and get Sky to show more JPT.

The excitement may not be as big (thanks to the top clubs) but scrapping the League Cup could mean lost revenue for smaller clubs. The JPT isn't going to cover that, drawing Burton away isn't quite the same as going somewhere like Everton.

I'm getting sick of what they've done to Football. The old system worked perfectly fine imo.

 

[Frank Clark’s Tash]

The only thing that makes me feel smug when it comes to over-privileged footballers (apart from my competitively towering intellect) is the fact that while I'm all tucked-up in the warm over Christmas and the the new year, they are out there freezing their bollocks off playing and training.

Don't take that away from me...

 

[Rhods]

How many matches do English teams actually play compared to other top European clubs?

Eg, Chelsea's 2014/15 schedule involved 54 competitive matches. Bayern Munich played 52.

Also, the top teams have huge numbers of players contracted to them: Eg, Manchester City have a first team squad of 40 players, and a further 13 players loaned out to other clubs. Plus all those in the youth teams etc.

Ultimately if these clubs aren't willing to rotate their squad then they have no grounds to complain about having tired players.

 

[Rzar]

It's got f*** all to do with the English national team doing better and everything to do with giving the rich clubs a better chance in the champions league. The national team thing is just a convenient excuse to convince people there is a good reason behind it. Just like the bollocks about the new academy rules, which are also f*** all to do with the fortunes of the England team and everything to do with lining the pockets of the greedy *****.

Almost every squad in the World Cup had about half Premier League players! The Belgian national team is almost all based in England!

A boxing day without some kind of football disaster happening wouldn't be the same...

I don't want the break because it won't be used as one. Big teams are starting to places like the Middle East and play games to earn a shit tonne of cash. That's exactly what the Premier League teams will do with it, so it won't be a break at all.

 

[Fallon]

Lower league clubs need the income to survive so it would be hard on them. Plus a January without football would get boring pretty fast.

 

[tomasj]

It works very well in Germany, but the Bundesliga has only 18 teams so there is less pressure on the calendar as a gap of 3-4 weeks (and only a single cup competition in Germany) doesn't have the impact on fixture congestion that you'd see over here.

Nordic countries have a spring to late autumn season.
While weather and climate might play some part, I think it's mostly due to our late entry into professional football. If you can play football in Scotland during winter, you can in Norway too.

 

[justnotjase]

I have no doubt we would go in to a winter break in great unbeaten form only to re-emerge from the break and lose every game.

No from me.

 

[Captain Sinister]

How many matches do English teams actually play compared to other top European clubs?

Eg, Chelsea's 2014/15 schedule involved 54 competitive matches. Bayern Munich played 52.

Also, the top teams have huge numbers of players contracted to them: Eg, Manchester City have a first team squad of 40 players, and a further 13 players loaned out to other clubs. Plus all those in the youth teams etc.

Ultimately if these clubs aren't willing to rotate their squad then they have no grounds to complain about having tired players.

I think Forest's biggest seasons were succesul on a simlar number of games and with a smaller playing squad.
Winter break - bad idea.

 

[SLM92NF]

Keep it how it is.

It's an easy cop out for coaches to explain poor form, for England to excuse poor tournaments and it's all built upon the fact that some other country are so much better than us at everything football related as far as the press are concerned.

We'll do it, nothing will change and all of a sudden everyone will be picking up on something else that needs changing.