Premier League considering winter break

The long-awaited winter break in England is being considered and could be implemented before the year 2022.

The Premier League is considering implementing a winter break which could be taken into effect before 2022, the year of a winter World Cup in Qatar. There have been many calls for years for the need for a winter break – which many other countries have – in England with the Christmas schedule being the most hectic and gruelling time of the year for clubs.

Many players suffer from fatigue and as a result become more prone to injury along with a feeling of becoming ‘’burned out’’ after the end of a long season, which many believe is one of the leading factors for as to why England continually underperform in International tournaments and England manager Gareth Southgate will surely be a supporter of any change that allows a rest to his players.

If a break is to be implemented, it is likely it’ll take place in January, very few Television companies or fans will be interested in giving up the traditional Boxing day games or the Christmas schedule itself. It is more likely that games that place around the New Years will be scrapped or potentially altering the FA Cup to avoid replays – meaning any FA Cup third/fourth round tie would go the way of the League Cup where games go to extra time and penalties if need be. This seems to be the most viable way of getting around having a winter break without having a massive pileup of fixtures that would render the idea of a break pointless.

Of course, there needs to be some kind questions to be had even if a winter break is deployed in the league. Are Premier League clubs actually going to take this break seriously? Will they actually let their players have a break to avoid fatigue, rest up and be in top fitness for the crunch part of the season with teams battling it out for the spots that they are aiming for or in the cup competitions?

One has to wonder if there will be clubs, particularly the top teams, that will attempt to take their teams off to Asia or America for a meaningless friendly cup competition for marketing and have another way to make money despite the already massive amounts of cash that these clubs make as it is?

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A winter break can be very beneficial, it would help the players avoid injury if they didn’t have to play a ridiculous amount of games in such a short period of time quite like in other countries such as Spain and Germany but this only happens if clubs take it seriously, if they put the needs of the players ahead of their short-term benefits.