For the good of the Premier League and SPL, is it time to embrace initiative?
More and more managers are succumbing to the idea that a winter break would be a welcome relief from the long, hard slog that most footballing divisions offer up. With the recent spate of fixture cancellations the argument for a winter break has gained momentum and weight.
Furthermore, after a World Cup campaign in which England’s sole victory came against Slovenia and ended with a 4-1 defeat by Germany, Fabio Capello, the England manager said his coaches had been concerned by the squad’s physical condition after an uninterrupted season that for some players included more than 50 club appearances.
This said, the recent deluge of snow that has torn through the fixture list is yet another reminder that a winter break would not only be sensible, but would give players ample time to rejuvenate and attack the Premier League with renewed vigour come January.
The winter break is the norm in many European leagues, the concept also gets support from England boss Fabio Capello, while there are calls north of the border for its re-introduction in the Scottish Premier League. So why do the relevant governing bodies seem so against the idea?
Due to the severity of the situation some teams will be playing two to three times a week for a prolonged period which will surely result in teams’ squads burning out prior to the season’s end.
One thing that must be said is that if unfortunate weather is the main motivation for a winter break then it becomes a dangerous game. Critics of a winter shutdown point to the lack of accuracy in predicting a poor spell of weather, which would then trigger even more fixture congestion if cancellations followed the break.
A winter break would certainly have its advantages, players could enjoy a deserved break, it would prove beneficial for the national team especially during seasons where international competitions fall, and finally the system would fall in line with other European leagues. However, when weather is the catalyst for such a decision surely it’s not the best of decisions due to our unpredictable climate?
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Surely the recent call offs show how ineffective a winter break would be?
If we’re having call-offs in Dec for heavy snow in Nov, when would this break happen?
If we had it now it’s generally been mooted as a Jan/Feb scenario, with the call-offs this month going into a winter break, the end of the season would be mayhem.
We can’t make it flexible. Then we have the case were one team carrying heavy injuries or lack of pool depth, have the time to recover, if incase(I know it sounds absurd but) there were any dodgy officials out there.
Summer football is defo a no no, so we play in Scotland, the weather gets bad some times, games will be postponed, and rangers will always be allowed to have dodgy plumbing whenever it suits!!
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for many years now I’ve said it should be the last 2 Saturdays in Jan. Ideally with a reduction of the number of teams in each league. Any games postponed before the break and those teams would be allowed to play them during the break. Also I would make the rest of January all cup rounds i.e. a couple of FA Cup rounds & 1 League Cup round, then if anyone wanted to have a winter World Cup it would mostly only effect the cup competitions. Any bad weather after January and those games could be slotted in when both teams are out of the cups.
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the SPL and scottish game has NO CHANCE of EVER competing with the EPL again due to finances. So why not take the radical approach and play from march to october? this would give the TV companies the chance to show a recognised league, with the chance of EPL teams farming out youngsters during the summer months, blooding them for the upcoming EPL season? there would still be the old firm rivalry and edingburgh and dundee derbies aswell!! this would be finnancially better for the SPL teams as they would not be competing for TV rights against EPL, Spannish, italian or german teams. whats to lose, the game is on its knees up north and fans are voting with their feet at the minute. summer weather and a better TV deal or freezing winters and empty stadiums? I know what i’d vote for!!
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dark blue Reply:
August 25th, 2011 at 10:21 pm
LMAO!!!!!! rangers and celtic OUT!!!!! Maybe now they will start to recognise the damage they have done to our league through their GREED!!! time to spread the wealth and create a league thats fair and equal!! only then will the TV companies come back to show it. This however is in an ideal world, I have this feeling the infirm will now say” look at us, we cant qualify, so we need more money from the TV deal to put scottish football back on the map!” same old same old.
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