10 day break in February starting from the 2019/20 season.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-to-come-into-force-in-premier-league-england
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...-to-come-into-force-in-premier-league-england
Winter Break | FA Confirms from 19/20 season
- Thread starter Zebs
- Start date
10 days doesn't seem long enough but I suppose it's something.
At least they didn't take away the christmas football..
10 days in February doesn't seem like it's addressing the fixture congestion that happens around Christmas.
That's because the Christmas congestion is largely planned because of the holidays.
Pretty much my thoughts. Absolutely don't give a feck about the national team being a bit less tired for tournaments but at least they haven't taken away the Christmas matches. Seems to continue the devaluation of the cup though.
The teams are going to start booking holidays in other countries and setting up friendlies to make money, arent they?
What a waste.
Football Chairmen everywhere don't read "winter break", they read "new opportunity to make money on a tour". If this is genuinely going to assist the national team going in to major tournaments then I'm all for it, but if it gets abused they should scrap it at the first opportunity.
Better than nothing I suppose but more needs to be done. Clubs should also be banned from going away and playing friendlies but that will never happen.
The 5th round of the FA Cup was always going to become replay-less at some point, I think the main positive of replays is the minnows get chance to make more money out of the big boys. Most of them, to be fair are gone by the 5th round. The fact that it's going to be all midweek is odd though, and will make it feel a bit League Cup-ish.
Yeah, it was the move to midweek that I had in mind when I said about devaluation. That said, I'm not in favour of them dropping the replays either - I prefer it when cup competitions encourage teams to go out and play for a win rather than being able to draw your way into the next round.
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I get that it can be termed a break, but it's not an increase in actual rest as clubs will play the same number of games as they would have done otherwise. Apart from the odd 5th round replay of course, which could have been scrapped anyway, if that's what most clubs actually wanted.
Great call.
from my understanding brits love that period, so it won't ever be removed.
I wouldn't be too optimistic about this as I'm sure it's only to accommodate that bought world cup in Qatar.
Yeah I'm willing to fight anyone who wants to remove the Christmas fixtures.
- (IMHO) it should be two weeks
- I hope dearly that clubs are discouraged from touring
- The caf favourite commonly quoted for weekends with no football: "Fecking international break" will now have a younger sibling: "Fecking winter break"
- I hope dearly that clubs are discouraged from touring
- The caf favourite commonly quoted for weekends with no football: "Fecking international break" will now have a younger sibling: "Fecking winter break"
I love it, but it's clearly detrimental to teams and quality. Those games need to be spread out more.
5th round replay has been scrapped.
Are they going to prohibit/condition that no team will be able to play any friendly during those 10 days because if not then what’s the point of the break.
I don't think there'll be a full-fledged break until this period of tv rights is done. I'm sure it will be better fleshed out when the new deals with sky and bt are done.
Poor loves. Can't wait for the Dubai Winter Cup to be announced.
If you decide to play a game during the break then that's your own fault really.
Maybe from the quarters onwards, but the last 16 first leg looks a bit dodgy, the foreign team will have a clear match fitness advantage.
Why not impliment it next season? Why wait? If clubs abuse this, then the FA should grow a pair and punish them. The players will be even more tired if they have to fly to Dubai and play in extremely hot climate.
38 matchdays remain 38 matchdays, now there'll be other periods where fixtures are piled up.
Why would they do that? Teams aren't stupid enough to go half-way round the globe for some meaningless friendly mid-season.
Boxing 10 rounds of 3 minutes with 1 minute intervals is a lot easier than boxing for 20 minute straight. The problem is FATIGUE.
Except they'll have less time between other matches, so there'll be more FATIGUE then to make up for it.
The only way to genuinely reduce this FATIGUE is to reduce the number of matches, and there's no football authority willing to do that as it would reduce their own power and importance.
I think there is a gentlemen's agreement in place that you can't play friendlies for money in this break period although you can go abroad and do warm whether training and the like.
http://www.espn.com/soccer/english-...winter-break-confirmed-starting-february-2020
ESPN reported that it's a staggered break. Meaning 10 teams sit out one weekend and then the other 10 teams sit out the next weekend.
ESPN reported that it's a staggered break. Meaning 10 teams sit out one weekend and then the other 10 teams sit out the next weekend.
You don't seem to get the concept that you can do more once you've had a break. Have you never been running, got tired and slowed down, stopped for a bit and, when you started up again, you got up to a higher pace and being full sure that you'd absolutely ran much further than you would have if you had not had the break? The idea that you need to reduce the number of matches to reduce fatigue is complete nonsense.
The corollary of every break is increased productivity after it so I'm not sure why it's so difficult for so many people to grasp this.
Just look at the productivity of children in school before and after break or before and after the extended lunch. Teachers aren't being nice by giving time off: they know they'll get more more of the children with breaks. A lot of people might say children should be obedient and pay attention but at a certain point you have to accept what children can do. This is the same with professional footballers: people can talk about how much money they earn but you have to look at what's best for them.
People within football want to ask how can they get the best out of footballers and the fans just want the footballers to work, work, work and seem to care more about effort of the players than about them actually working in a useful way.
If it's a gentleman's agreement somebody will break it even if it's 3 years time
Then it will be all out everybody imo
I'm not convinced the English fixtures are an actual problem.
I guess we'll see if the likes of Salah, Hazard, Lukaku and all the other English based guys are shit at the world cup.
Always seems like an excuse for England being shit.
I guess we'll see if the likes of Salah, Hazard, Lukaku and all the other English based guys are shit at the world cup.
Always seems like an excuse for England being shit.
That's a great idea. So no break for watching football, as half the teams play one week and the other half the next week.
I'm impressed with that idea. Keeping the christmas fixtures is brilliant as well
I'm impressed with that idea. Keeping the christmas fixtures is brilliant as well
I get all that, and you've put it well, my point is that the benefits of altering rest patterns by moving matches about are marginal compared to what might be gained by addressing the real problem and reducing the number of matches in the first place. I suppose cutting out 5th round replays is a nod to that of course.
This isn't THAT different to the Spanish one, they usually make sure there is a full week where no-one does anything after the last set of weekend games, then sometimes they put cup games in to ease teams back in, so it's usually a fortnight or so with no league games, unless there is scope for an extra week or half week due to space in the summer. The German one always strikes me as being a tad TOO long.
The perks of having an 18 team league.
I think this is very much a half-assed makeshift solution. If the season cannot be lengthened to make room for an actual winter break, maybe we should be scrapping the League Cup. Quite dramatic, but I wouldn't miss it.
This first step is going to be for the FA Cup what goal line technology was leading to the introduction of VAR.
The ice is now broken and in a few years every FA Cup round apart from the the semi's and final will be midweek. "Bigger" sides will rotate even more and not really bother if they are knocked out in the early rounds as it "buys" free/rest periods later in the season much like an early League Cup exit is seen as.
The ice is now broken and in a few years every FA Cup round apart from the the semi's and final will be midweek. "Bigger" sides will rotate even more and not really bother if they are knocked out in the early rounds as it "buys" free/rest periods later in the season much like an early League Cup exit is seen as.