David Dein yesterday outlined the first steps towards a winter
break in the Premiership season.
Dein, vice-chairman of the Football Association and champions
Arsenal, is a strong advocate of the proposal, as is England coach
Sven Goran Eriksson. Others backing the change, which could come
into force as early as the 2003-04 season, are Arsenal manager
Arsene Wenger and Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier.
Managers will have the opportunity to press for a three-week
shutdown when they gather at a Premier League technical meeting
later this summer.
Dein, who suggests the break could start immediately after the New
Year's Day fixtures, said: 'We have to consider how to get the best
out of the product. This will maximise it as we try to make sure
the players are as fit as possible during the course of the
season.'
The timing of the break, however, unlike the current ones in Spain
and Italy, would not impinge on the Christmas period, traditionally
so popular in England.
Dein said: 'A three-week break would give the players an
opportunity to go off somewhere on holiday for a couple of
weeks.
'It will be good for everyone, whether they be managers or players
and in a way it would be good for the fans to have a break as it is
so intense with up to three games a week.'
That intensity can take its toll and Eriksson was concerned at the
relentless schedule his England players faced before they headed to
Korea and Japan for the World Cup Finals.
Dein added: 'Sven thought that at the World Cup some of the players
were not physically at the their peak. That was shown in the later
stages.'
To ensure clubs did not take advantage of the season lull and
arrange lucrative tours to places like the Far East, the FA would
not sanction matches.
If the scheme goes ahead, the season would probably start a week
earlier and end a week later, while there would also be the problem
of rescheduling the FA Cup, the third and fourth rounds of which
are normally held in January.
However, one snag would be that, in World Cup or European
Championship summers, the Premiership season would eat even more
into preparation time.
David Gold, chairman of newly-promoted Birmingham City, is not
convinced about the proposals.
He said: 'I can't see it going through. Winter breaks don't always
coincide with bad weather anyway. The current system works and if
it ain't broke, don't fix it.'
