Winter break in PL yay/nay?

[Mazuuurk]

Saw this on the Beebs and apparently it's a serious discussion.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/42954835

I'm adding a token poll as I'm quite sure most of us here will find this as outrageous as I do. But you can't really deny the merit of it in logical terms and when talking about stuff like CL competititveness etc.


Then again, it's partly what has given PL clubs about 50 billion more than everyone else sooo, have that for competitivness Pep et al :dc:

[Ian]

Is the plan to reduce the numbers of teams for less games too? If not then I don't see how just making other bits of the season more congested is supposed to help.

It's also not going to help England do better in a tournament unless the time is going to be spent performing spine transplants.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's only feasible if they reduce the number of fixtures, as then you're just cramming games into a different period of time.

I think the only way of doing it is reduce the league to 18 teams (presumably this won't apply to lower divisions) or abolish the League Cup.

[-james-]

God no.

I'd rather they scrapped the league cup, or just let them/encourage them to field youth sides in it. If you take that away then it's the same amount of games in the same amount of time as Spain or Italy.

[Disco]

Clubs have enough players and resources to play two or three games a week. Suck it up and get on with it. Plus you know if there was a break they'd all be off playing in the Noodle Cup anyway so what's the point?

[Ian]

It's all about the Tractor Cup these days, Disco.

[Giggles]

Nah, they earn enough. Let them entertain us.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I also think there's a bit of clever politics involved in terms of those managers who call for it constantly (Pep and Klopp mainly) being at the helm of manic pressing teams.

[phonics]

Most teams already have a winter break. It's called being knocked out of the FA Cup.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Similarly I don't know why everyone goes on about cup replays being the way to solve this problem. Most teams don't play any cup replays in a given season.

[Byron]

I wouldn't mind if it was a genuine break but you know that Man U would be off in Singapore laying 4 games as a part of the 'Pot Noodle Championship' with Celtic, Bayern and Inter.

[Spammer]

I don't think it should be up to us.

I'd let the players vote on it.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I don't think it should be up to us.

I'd let the players vote on it.

Players are the last people who should have a say. All they know about is how to take corners and play offside traps. I'd rather ask the turnstile operators and bovril sellers.

[phonics]

I'd argue they don't know how to take corners.

[Jimmy Floyd]

They know to put the ball in or overhanging the quadrant and kick it. Can you head a corner?

[phonics]

Only goal I ever scored in Sunday League was from a corner, barely grazed my forehead and I gave it the full Tardelli. Taking them though, genuinely think I could beat the first man more often than Xhaka can.

[SincereTheRebel]

Clubs have enough players and resources to play two or three games a week. Suck it up and get on with it. Plus you know if there was a break they'd all be off playing in the Noodle Cup anyway so what's the point?

Facts. More games > less games.

[McAvennie]

Agreed, total crap, if the clubs and players want to play less games ban the noodle cups.

If they want to avoid fixture congestion at Christmas then they could just move one round of the league games to a week earlier in August

Oh, and get rid of 2 round semis and relplays of FA cup games

[SincereTheRebel]

Fuck that. Dont get rid of anything. Add more replys. Add more teams in the league. Give them more games to play overall.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Argentina has the best league. Keep scrolling down, the teams just never end.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017%E2%80%9318_Argentine_Primera_Divisi%C3%B3n

[Spammer]

Players are the last people who should have a say. All they know about is how to take corners and play offside traps. I'd rather ask the turnstile operators and bovril sellers.

They probably know best when they feel tired.

[SvN]

I'm with Jimmy, the players are spastics.

[Disco]

Players and managers are the last people you should ask, they will always want less games no matter the fixture schedule. All these clubs have huge squads, there should be no issue playing the current amount of games. As has been said, if it was a genuine concern then they should cancel pre-season tours to Bumfuck Mississippi and the like.

[Spammer]

Players and managers are the last people you should ask, they will always want less games no matter the fixture schedule. All these clubs have huge squads, there should be no issue playing the current amount of games. As has been said, if it was a genuine concern then they should cancel pre-season tours to Bumfuck Mississippi and the like.

They wouldn't get less games over the year. They would get a winter break.

[Disco]

During which they would go on tour and play more games.

[Jimmy Floyd]

They probably know best when they feel tired.

They want to do as little work as possible for the same money, so they will always 'feel tired'. That isn't necessarily in the best interests of the sport though.

They also have no interest in anything surrounding the sport (fans, other employees at clubs, the growth of the game, etc) which doesn't affect their pay packets. And that's before I get into calling them stupid and uneducated, which they also are.

[Mazuuurk]

I'm not sure if the discussion stems so much from the amount of games as the English tradition of jamming about 4 rounds of football into a (fucking glorious) two week period.


Now say what you will about Wenger (and I'm sure he's contradicted himself ever since), but he got this right:


I would cry if you changed that because it’s part of English tradition and English football. It’s a very important part of us being popular in the world, that nobody works at Christmas and everybody watches the Premier League.

[niko_cee]

Of course this is a terrible idea.

The idea of Champions League competitiveness is laughable as well. That has nothing to do with the number of games played in England, or even the intensity (it's not like England has never dominated in Europe) it's to do with every other league in Europe being massively noncompetitive for the most part and operating as nursery operations for a small cadre of super dominant sides. And even then The Premier League is probably going to spanner most of them this season.

[Mazuuurk]

Do the other leagues start earlier or end later or something? They have the same amount of teams don't they so if they have winter breaks they must have shorter summers or something.

[Kikó]

They'll be having world cups in winter next.

[SincereTheRebel]

They'll be having world cups in winter next.

I dont see any issue with that. International football is the most important on a historical level. Stop club football for a few months for a winter knockout.

[Disco]

The winter world cup is great, the bleating of managers and club executives will be like music. If other more physically demanding sports can do it every year then football can probably manage two competions for a few weeks.

[phonics]

Why would there be two competitions? FIFA would ban any league that dared run at the same time as the World Cup and therefore their respective country.

[Disco]

Lol, what a bunch of fannies.

[Reg]

Footballers' fitness is overrated, particularly since they want a winter break. Tennis players can play a five hour match and then another match the next day.

I'd like Christmas football to stay.

[Jimmy Floyd]

People keep saying that Andreas Christensen has broken down because it's his first season without a winter break. Is it not too much to ask footballers to have thigh muscles that can cope with playing football occasionally?

[Baz]

Haha wasn’t expecting a 0-10 vote. :D

Glad we’ve all got the right idea.

[Disco]

Footballers' fitness is overrated, particularly since they want a winter break. Tennis players can play a five hour match and then another match the next day.

I'd like Christmas football to stay.

Quite. If you can't run about for a couple of hours two or three times a week without dying then you really shouldn't be a professional athlete.

[-james-]

Tennis players can play a five hour match and then another match the next day.


How often does this happen? Once per year per player? There is a noticeable decline in performance (http://www.tennisabstract.com/blog/category/match-length/) associated with fatigue, in any case.

[Lewis]

Tennis is also clearly as bent as cycling.

[Spikey M]

We don’t live in a European shithole with Soviet winters, so no need. If you want to reduce the amount of fixtures, bin the League Cup.

[Reg]

How often does this happen? Once per year per player? There is a noticeable decline in performance (http://www.tennisabstract.com/blog/category/match-length/) associated with fatigue, in any case.
Of course there's a decline in performance, but that doesn't really discredit their efforts compared to footballers. And that won't happen all that often as there are only four slams a year after all, but in a regular 5-match tournament you can easily play three hours then play the very next day, and end up playing 5 matches inside a week.

Footballers run, say, seven miles twice a week. As well as the work they do in training (which doesn't last long). If they can't manage that then they're worlds away from the fittest athletes.

[Spikey M]

I’d say the top players are playing far better football in April and May than they are in August and September.

Give them 2 weeks paid leave in the Summer Holidays and send them back to work.

[Lewis]

In the grand scheme of things footballers are pretty average athletes. It's the main reason I doubt that doping is as widespread as it is in other sports, even though the financial rewards would provide an obvious incentive.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Rugby players never getting done for steroid abuse is a head scratcher to say the least. I know for a fact it is widespread in the amateur game.

[Lewis]

Amateurs are always getting busted for it (although they are obviously tested less), but the professionals can just work within the guidelines and still bowl around with miles more testosterone than a normal person.

[mugbull]

It says in the article that the winter break is being discussed as a January break, not as a holiday break, so all you mugs will get to keep your Christmas football

[Raoul Duke]

I see a few viable options:

- Make it a thing, but band commercial games in that period
- Synchronise the European calendars
- Kill the Milk Cup or whatever it is now

[Pepe]

My father could play tennis for 2-3 hours on Saturday and Sunday in his sixties. If he tried to play football he would've died within five minutes. Point is, tennis players are bums. They spend 90% of a match staring at their racquet / arranging their balls.

[Kikó]

And they're drugged up.

[Reg]

My father could play tennis for 2-3 hours on Saturday and Sunday in his sixties. If he tried to play football he would've died within five minutes. Point is, tennis players are bums. They spend 90% of a match staring at their racquet / arranging their balls.
In my experience anyone playing singles tennis who is much older than their opponent (and still competing) is likely much better technically. I'm not sure the active/non-active argument holds that much weight: a lot of footballers' running is fairly low intensity (they also pretty much stand around at times - particularly strikers, centre backs and obviously keepers), and they get a 15 minute break at half time. The active side of tennis is all high intensity - you can't saunter around to retrieve shots.

[Pepe]

They're doped though.

[Disco]

And footballers aren't. Sure.

[Kikó]

Only the foreign ones.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The latest on this is that the clubs are backing it if there's a 'staggered' winter break, as TV companies don't want any weeks without games.

[Mazuuurk]

What does a "staggered" winter break mean?

Everyone goes off to Magaluf?

[Jimmy Floyd]

Presumably 3 games one week, 4 games the next and 3 the week after (or similar) so everyone gets a break but at different times.

[Disco]

So not a break at all then, just shifting some fixtures around. They could just do that anyway.

[SvN]

It means players will only play one game instead of 3/4.

[Giggles]

Yeah everyone gets the break but they happen for different teams at different times. A bit like the bye week in the NFL, though that's more spread out.

[ItalAussie]

The staggered break seems like a surprisingly common sense solution.

Presumably there's a massive flaw in it.

[phonics]

Have to say I've never understood the 'HOW WILL WE FIT ALL THE GAMES IN' argument. I've just checked today and due to the way the Cups fell. Arsenal don't play another league game for 3 weeks.

[Multi]

Let the lads kick their feet up I say. Life shouldn't be so dull that the masses need football matches on Christmas day and shit to not top themselves.

[Mazuuurk]

Life isn't dull because we have football at Christmas.

[Mazuuurk]

Also, sup Multi.

[Pleb]

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2018/feb/13/sky-bt-sport-premier-league-tv-rights

Edit-should of read the midweek thread :sherlock:

[phonics]

Winter Break to be implemented in the 19/20 season

968277355230842883

[-james-]

I am fine with this.

[Reg]

No weekends without football, and Christmas football stays? Sounds good to me. No cup replays in the 5th round is a small price to pay for winning for the World Cup.

[Lewis]

That actually sounds sensible. What is going on?

[McAvennie]

Good decision, next World Cup in the bag