Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore has admitted talks are underway on the potential of introducing a winter break for the top flight in the future.
With new England manager Sam Allardyce long being a proponent of the more continental style break after Christmas, allowing the players to recharge their batteries so to speak, Scudamore admits that with ongoing talk about shaking up the entire Premier League and Football League to ease congestion, the next television deal could be negotiated on the basis of a break for the top flight.
Changes can’t be brought in until 2019 as that is the end date for the current television deal, but speaking to the wider media yesterday, Scudamore explained.
‘He (Allardyce) has been very consistent and has been calling for it for a lot time, as has every England manager. There are more prospects for it than I can remember. We are having discussions but it`s not easy due to the calendar of different competitions. We are open-minded and keen if we can make it work. We all know what we have to do to create space and something has to give. It would have to be decided by the next TV market which is sometime at the end of 2017 and the start of 2018.’
With the likes of Spain and Germany enjoying post Christmas breaks it’s easy to see the clamour for it, but those with more of a mind to club football and not international tournaments – they would quickly point to how the now regular international windows have clearly served no purpose at that level and if a break was introduced all you would achieve is in extending the season so international players wouldn’t actually get an increased break in any event.
Maybe for England the secret would be to have the players together more regularly for training to build understanding and team spirit, and do away with the pointless friendlies that see successive managers experiment and switch things ruining any cohesion that has been built.
