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Premier League considering introducing a winter break

The Premier League have confirmed that they are looking into the possibility of introducing a winter break onto the footballing calendar.

Currently, England is one of the only countries in Europe that do not afford their players a mid season break, despite calls from pretty much every manager and player to have ever worked here.

The introduction of a winter break is thought to help players recover from fatigue, which will ultimately boost their hopes at the end of the campaign, especially those fighting on more than one front and in Europe.

However, as it stands, nothing can happen until at least the 2019/20 season, which will see the start of a new TV deal, and the Premier League have confirmed they are in discussions with various parties as they try to organise a mid season shut down.

A statement from the Premier League reads:

“The Premier League has been in discussions with the FA and EFL for several months regarding the challenges of the increasingly congested English football calendar and ways in which we can work together to ease fixture congestion while also giving players a mid-season break.

“Provided space can be found in the calendar, we are open to this in principle and will continue constructive discussions with our football stakeholders to seek a workable solution.”

While the rest of Europe have a winter break, England has a long and proud tradition of playing football over the festive season, as well as starting with the the FA Cup third round early in the new year. It has been speculated that a winter break could be fitted in in January after the FA Cup fixtures have been played.There are also suggestions to scrap FA Cup replays in order to lighten the load on teams’ bulging fixture lists.

An announcement could be made as early as next week when details of the new TV deal are released.