What? No Football?

Last updated : 28 January 2004 By Brian Cartlidge

A break of 13 days during January will begin from next season as long as a balanced fixture schedule can be arranged.

The idea for the mid-season break was put forward to Premier League chiefs by England coach Sven-Göran Eriksson.

"He presented compelling evidence to the chairmen regarding the benefits to players in the second half of the season," Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore told BBC Radio Five Live.

"He thinks players should have an absolute rest for seven days and then have six days back in training.

"This means only one weekend of matches would be lost to the fixture schedule."

Well I can't really get my head round this one. England is one of the few European countries not to have a mid-season break, so what? We have arguably the best league and the best players in the world. Why fix what isn't broken? Scotland tried it and have reverted back to having no break. If they want players to have a decent rest between games then why not revert back to 3pm saturday games and the occasional midweek fixture?

What are they doing to 'the beautiful game' ?

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