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Premier League clubs will have a winter break in February from the 2019-20 season

The break will be staggered across two weeks, with five matches on the first weekend and five the following weekend.

The FA Cup fifth round will be moved to midweek to accommodate the break, with replays being scrapped at that stage.

The Football Association described it as "a significant moment for English football" that "will greatly benefit club and country".

"It's no secret that we have a very congested fixture calendar and over recent years we have been working with the whole game to find a solution," said FA chief executive Martin Glenn.

All three divisions of the English Football League (EFL) will remain unchanged, with a full programme of fixtures taking place on each of the weekends where there is a break.

A season of change
Winter breaks are already factored into schedules of the top leagues in Germany, France, Italy and Spain, though they all take place between December and January, which is the busiest period for Premier League teams.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola said in January that the festive schedule was "killing" his players, while earlier in the 2017-18 season his Manchester United counterpart Jose Mourinho said the lack of a break was hampering English clubs' hopes in the Champions League.

However, former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger once said he would "cry" if a winter break was introduced. The Gunners played six games in 19 days during the festive period last season, the Frenchman's final one in charge.

The 2019-20 will be a season of even more change following the announcement that Amazon will show 20 Premier League matches a season for three years from 2019 after winning one of the final two broadcast packages.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/44414487

Long overdue.

Seems there's been a lot for goings on over the last few days, no wonder Scudamore's binned it.

About time though, after seeing the amount of games we played over Xmas and the New Year period it makes you wonder how we ever got through it.

Can the PL now look at scheduling big fixtures away from. CL games, and then rejigging them to suit the TV audience, so that our teams actually have a chance of winning the thing.

I hope they extend the end of the season to compensate for the break, otherwise it could end up an absolute farce come the end of the season if we go far in the cups.

Great for clubs in Europe. Everyone else is fucked of course, especially the little clubs relying on third round replays

No extra time in the League Cup either from next year. It will be straight to penalties if scores are level after 90 minutes. Apparently over the last three years 85% of draws after 90 minutes went to penalties anyway

nottsblue wrote:No extra time in the League Cup either from next year. It will be straight to penalties if scores are level after 90 minutes. Apparently over the last three years 85% of draws after 90 minutes went to penalties anyway

And they've dumped abba penno's and gone back to traditional way thankfully

Good

Good news.

Also seems they spread it out well so we won't be starved for football.

It seems each club gets about 2 weeks off in between fixtures, whilst the rest still play, and won't affect the busy Christmas/New Year schedule.

Happens just before CL/Euro knockout phases and will be a fitness boost after a very tough stretch of games.

Biggest downside I gather is could hurt lower league/non-league clubs hoping for a FA Cup replay against a big side at home, but it only applies to the 5th round so they can still get one in the 4th round.

You could also argue this helps bigger clubs keep fitter, but winter break's in other nations surely benefit smaller clubs keep their own players fit as well. The PL has a ridiculous stretch of games, even for teams not in Europe, and might be something clubs can now sell players not so keen on playing games during the dead of winter who can go on holiday to warmer climates to recuperate for the last stretch of the season.

Don't see how this is better. Teams still need to play the same amount of games, but now in less days. Best solution imo would be to just fuck off the league cup, there's no need for two cups and it might make teams take the FA Cup more seriously again

Why has nobody mentioned that this surely means 2 weeks off pre big champions league games ? When this doesn't happen in the other big leagues ?

So 2 weeks off before playing Madrid away ? How does that help us ? Remember when we battered Moscow after their break. They werent fit.

Also.... Will probably fly them to Abu Dhabi for a marketing match £

Nick wrote:Why has nobody mentioned that this surely means 2 weeks off pre big champions league games ? When this doesn't happen in the other big leagues ?

So 2 weeks off before playing Madrid away ? How does that help us ? Remember when we battered Moscow after their break. They werent fit.

Also.... Will probably fly them to Abu Dhabi for a marketing match £

Two weeks break cannot be compared to Russia's 3 MONTHS break FFS

And yes they will more than likely go to AD for warm weather (light) training to keep the sharpness levels, why not use the facilities available to you, has to be better than likes of Bournemouth trundling off to Majorca or alicante????

Cubs cannot play friendlies for money during the break for money as far as I’ve heard