The scepticism over whether the English Premier League needs a winter break has been going on for a long time now. There are many who believe that the English top-flight certainly needs a winter break, and it is high time that the most popular league in the world puts some serious thought into it.
Former English player, Gary Lineker said he has information suggesting that the Premier League might soon follow the other big leagues in Europe and employ a winter break midway through the season.
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Lineker, who won the Golden boot in the 1986 Fifa World Cup, revealed this during his interview Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp for BBC’s popular programme, ‘The Premier League Show’.
Lineker said, “I have a little bit of inside information that suggests that we might get a winter break sometime soon.” The former Barcelona player’s word can be respected as he is a reputed sports broadcaster who would most likely know the goings-on in the Premier League.
The argument that the Premier league should certainly need a winter break is not negligible. During the interview, Klopp pointed out that, a long and intense season would take a toll on the players and suggested that it may have been one of the reasons which led to England’s embarrassing elimination in the UEFA Euro 2016 at the hands of Iceland.
The top leagues in Europe have a winter break midway through the season.
The German Bundesliga has a month-long winter break from December 22nd to January 20th. Spain’s La Liga has a break during the festive period and no matches will be played between December 19th and January 7th. The Italian Serie A and French Ligue 1 also take a much-needed break after the first half of the season is finished.
However, the English clubs have games during this part of the year including the traditional Boxing Day games. This would certainly have an impact on the performances of the English clubs in the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions league and UEFA Europa league.
The smaller clubs in the Premier league will also struggle and the months of March, April and May test the fitness levels of players more than their counterparts in Spain, Germany or France.
It is quite clear that the Premier league would certainly benefit from a winter break and that might act as a catalyst for English domination in Europe.
