Winter Break

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Just announced the premier league will have a winter break from 2019/20.

Apart from the obvious year, Boxing Day is a game everyone looks forward to & crowds are generally bigger than most other times.

I know we aren’t in it yet but if we were I’d miss the Christmas schedule.
 



Been told the mid season break will be in February
Must be early Feb. Champions League knockouts start mid Feb.

The FA Cup 4th round is played on the 27th Jan and the 5th Round is played on the 17th Feb so I assume it will be 2 weeks within that time frame.
 
FAC5 midweek and no replays that round.
Small price to pay so that the giants of the English game can raise their profile and please thier sponsors.

They may even make a few bob out of it.

Shame that Exeter (chosen at random) may miss out on a cup replay at OT or the Emirates but we have to look after the big boys.
 
No doubt to fit in with the arabic/thai/ Chinese etc etc requirements and enable the PL clubs to raise much needed funds.
Or to fall in line with Germany, Spain, Italy and France :)
 
Good idea all round. IF the clubs opt to go round the world then that's upto them, but those that don't will be in a better position for the title run in.
 
Or to fall in line with Germany, Spain, Italy and France :)
Countries which, not un-coincidentally, have much less interesting and badly supported 2nd, 3rd and 4th tiers compared to the venerable institutions that make up our lower echelons. Football in this country may not be the best but it is without a doubt the most, for want of a better word, interesting, due in large part to the lower 72. This just seems to be yet another step towards cutting the lower tiers loose while Her Majesty's Premiership sails off into the distance.
 
Countries which, not un-coincidentally, have much less interesting and badly supported 2nd, 3rd and 4th tiers compared to the venerable institutions that make up our lower echelons. Football in this country may not be the best but it is without a doubt the most, for want of a better word, interesting, due in large part to the lower 72. This just seems to be yet another step towards cutting the lower tiers loose while Her Majesty's Premiership sails off into the distance.

At the moment the PL daren't cut themselves off from the EFL as long as they have Hudders, Brighton, Watford, Bournemouth, Cardiff etc and we have Villa, Us, pigs (yes), Forest, Brum, Sunderland etc. They'll either have to wait until the balance is redressed (be a long wait) or I envisage the creation of a separate PL entity made up by invitation only with no promotion/relegation.

The EFL should have taken the initiative long ago and fucked the PL off. Then when the least successful clubs in the PL go bust or wish to re-enter the EFL they start again in the Conference. The EFL have a lot of cards to play with but they either don't realise it or haven't got the balls.
 
Dunno about winter break, it feels like everyone at the Lane is having a summer break! Chuff all's happening.
 
The EFL should have taken the initiative long ago and fucked the PL off. Then when the least successful clubs in the PL go bust or wish to re-enter the EFL they start again in the Conference. The EFL have a lot of cards to play with but they either don't realise it or haven't got the balls.

I think the fiasco over getting QPR to pay their FFP or whatever fine when they dropped back into the Championship, showed the EFL's lack of balls.
They should have put them in the Conference until they'd settled up their debt. Set an example for all the other clubs who want to flounce the rules.
 
Good idea all round. IF the clubs opt to go round the world then that's upto them, but those that don't will be in a better position for the title run in.

I’d be interested to hear why you think it’s a good idea all round, if you could elaborate.
 



Isn't the Winter Break only for the Premier League, and the EFL will be unaffected?
 
As if there aren't enough weekends without matches as it is, due to all the 'international weekends'
 
Martin Glenn at the FA said he knew traditionalists would complain about changes to the FA Cup but said there had been a lot of changes. He cited that the Final used to be played over 2 legs, for example.

Fun fact: the FA Cup final has never been played over 2 legs.
 
I’d be interested to hear why you think it’s a good idea all round, if you could elaborate.
It gives the players a much needed mid-season break, while protecting the traditional Christmas fixture list, and this more important especially in international tournament years.
It will reduce some of the injuries you tend to see where players continue to play through the "red zone", and encourage more fans to go to lower league matches when PL games aren't on.
Losing the 5th round reply isn't any great loss either, and personally I think it would be better if the FA cup had no replays and lower league teams always at home.
It's also well timed in February where we do tend to get more inclement weather but it also means players are better rested for the title run in, and also won't affect Easter fixtures which is another traditional highlight of the season.
Slightly disappointed that games will be staggered, but I guess that's due to TV commitments. I just think a clean break and then all the top clubs back for those involved in the 5th round would give the FA cup some added focus too.

Finally unless we finally get to the PL, which the odds are generally going to be against, it doesn't affect us at all.
 
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It gives the players a much needed mid-season break, while protecting the traditional Christmas fixture list, and this more important especially in international tournament years.
It will reduce some of the injuries you tend to see where players continue to play through the "red zone", and encourage more fans to go to lower league matches when PL games aren't on.
Losing the 5th round reply isn't any great loss either, and personally I think it would be better if the FA cup had no replays and lower league teams always at home.
It's also well timed in February where we do tend to get more inclement weather but it also means players are better rested for the title run in, and also won't affect Easter fixtures which is another traditional highlight of the season.
Slightly disappointed that games will be staggered, but I guess that's due to TV commitments. I just think a clean break and then all the top clubs back for those involved in the 5th round would give the FA cup some added focus too.

Finally unless we finally get to the PL, which the odds are generally going to be against, it doesn't affect us at all.

The weather issue shouldn’t really come in to play anyway as PL games rarely get called off.

Don’t you think a better idea would be to put a system in place which encourages managers to use all of the players within their squads? Being able to rest the ‘better’ players will only result in the ‘lesser’ players playing less, which generally means less game time for English players.

Losing the FA Cup replay isn’t a loss for the big teams, I can imagine that it could be for some of the smaller teams though.

Recent reports suggest that England’s players are playing less than their counterparts in Spain, France and Brazil so I don’t buy the ‘our players are tired’ argument for why England are so poor in International tournaments.

Also, is the season getting longer? If not then surely this will only cause a congestion elsewhere in the calendar as teams still have to play the same amount of games.
 
This is what I don't get.

Not that I particularly want it, but surely a 46 game season is longer than a 38 game season.

What about the football league?

I understand that Premier League clubs might go further in the cups, and 3/4 teams may have European duties, but Football League clubs can play up to 60 games as well!

Because it’s less important if a league 2 player gets injured
 
The weather issue shouldn’t really come in to play anyway as PL games rarely get called off.

Don’t you think a better idea would be to put a system in place which encourages managers to use all of the players within their squads? Being able to rest the ‘better’ players will only result in the ‘lesser’ players playing less, which generally means less game time for English players.
Nope I don't. I think a better idea would be for English players to not move to clubs if they aren't going to play. The recent moves to Germany of a couple of high profile youngsters is a good start, as is the likes of this England squad which has started to have a mix of players who came through other clubs rather than sat at the big ones. Pickford, Butland, Walker, Rose, Maguire, Trippier, Cahill, Alli, Vardy, for example.

Losing the FA Cup replay isn’t a loss for the big teams, I can imagine that it could be for some of the smaller teams though.
I'd suggest it's minimal impact, and if all lower league sides were drawn at home it would negate most of that and probably benefit more than those that lose.
As it is, it really is a small number of smaller clubs who would first need get a reply away to a Premiership side in order to miss out.

Recent reports suggest that England’s players are playing less than their counterparts in Spain, France and Brazil so I don’t buy the ‘our players are tired’ argument for why England are so poor in International tournaments.
By recent reports I'm assuming you mean the one in the last week or so, and was based on our players in this particular squad. I'd suggest if you don't look at England players but players playing in England that would alter the results, and that's what we're talking here. Too many games without a break in the English season. Rashford, Welbeck, Loftus-Cheek, Henderson, Delph, Jones, Cahill, Stones, and Rose have had reasonable breaks this season where they haven't played due to injury or not being fancied which would have skewed that report.

Also, is the season getting longer? If not then surely this will only cause a congestion elsewhere in the calendar as teams still have to play the same amount of games.
Not sure if this is a point I've made? The season has got slightly longer over the passed few years, as I remember the FA Cup final was a week earlier in 2001 but there are midweeks where some teams do skip fixtures, and better spaced games with this break would seem to make more sense .
 
Nope I don't. I think a better idea would be for English players to not move to clubs if they aren't going to play. The recent moves to Germany of a couple of high profile youngsters is a good start, as is the likes of this England squad which has started to have a mix of players who came through other clubs rather than sat at the big ones. Pickford, Butland, Walker, Rose, Maguire, Trippier, Cahill, Alli, Vardy, for example.


I'd suggest it's minimal impact, and if all lower league sides were drawn at home it would negate most of that and probably benefit more than those that lose.
As it is, it really is a small number of smaller clubs who would first need get a reply away to a Premiership side in order to miss out.


By recent reports I'm assuming you mean the one in the last week or so, and was based on our players in this particular squad. I'd suggest if you don't look at England players but players playing in England that would alter the results, and that's what we're talking here. Too many games without a break in the English season. Rashford, Welbeck, Loftus-Cheek, Henderson, Delph, Jones, Cahill, Stones, and Rose have had reasonable breaks this season where they haven't played due to injury or not being fancied which would have skewed that report.


Not sure if this is a point I've made? The season has got slightly longer over the passed few years, as I remember the FA Cup final was a week earlier in 2001 but there are midweeks where some teams do skip fixtures, and better spaced games with this break would seem to make more sense .

The bit about the season getting longer isn’t a point you’ve made, it’s a question I’m asking. Unless they are extending the season then it’s only going to cause congestion elsewhere. If they extend the season at the end then it will be closer to the start of International tournaments.

It would be great if players didn’t choose to move to clubs where they wouldn’t play. Unfortunately money talks and the big clubs can pay players enormous sums for players to do nothing. A lot of the players you mentioned weren’t wanted by the big clubs when they were youngsters anyway.

If the lower league teams were drawn at home then it would be great but that isn’t the case. Obviously it won’t effect every team every season but there will have been a lot of clubs benefit from getting a replay in the FA Cup 5th round, there’s no chance at all of them getting this now so I’m not sure how this change is a ‘good idea all round’.

Yes, the report on the BBC last week. It shows that England’s players played 10,000 minutes less than Spain’s. I’ve not seen any of their players complain about being tired.

England being shit isn’t caused by fixture congestion, it’s caused by there being not enough English players playing at the top of the game. The foreign players in the PL will now get extra time to recover, meaning less chance for our youngsters to be given a chance
 
Is this move irrelevant to most PL clubs? They have big squads, 38 games, most don't take the Cups seriously, they are not playing in Europe, and many of their players are not playing international matches. I suspect many PL squad players will play relatively little competitive football, and will continue to be paid a fortune to do little more than training.
 
A lack of a break has been touted as the reason for England's failures in major competitions and foreign managers who are used to it have been moaning about it recently, so it was inevitable that it would be brought in. We will now discover that it doesn't make a jot of difference.
 
Another manoeuvre by the FA & PL that slowly, but surely, kills the identity of our game. The same identity that got worldwide attention in the first place.

3pm KO's will be the next to get pushed back and I wouldn't be surprised i, some Bellend-Executive type is weighing up the commercial benefit of switching 1/2 times to 1/4's.

The sooner we figure out a way for Man Utd, Man City, Bayern, Real Madrid etc. to all make their own continent super league the better it will be domestically.
 



The European Super League can't come soon enough.Everything is now geared so the rich get richer. EPPP has meant many lower league clubs have downgraded or shut their academies.What's the point when you have little chance of a schoolboy footballer reaching a pro contract, and making your club money or benefiting the first team due to EPPP?The FA cup has been intentionally damaged and downgraded. It has been systematically downgraded from the preeminent English competition (along with the World Cup) to an afterthought.The finances from the cups would keep lower league clubs going for years;they have been gradually taken away for reforms that make the rich richer. Soon replays wont exist at all.
I could go on and on: how selling the brand has damaged the national team; how TV power has destroyed many of the traditions e.g. kick off times.How parachute payments are destroying the competitive nature of the EFL.
 

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