Good news for Sam Allardyce as Richard Scudamore confirms talks ongoing to introduce winter break into the Premier League
Premier League executive chairman Richard Scudamore says there is a willingness amongst authorities to introduce the winter break called for by new England manager Sam Allardyce.
England's non-stop football calendar, which in contrast to Germany, Spain and France only pauses for international fixtures, has long been cited as a possible disadvantage to the England team at major international tournaments.
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At his first press conference as England manager Allardyce said: "It would help the Premier League and us at international level if we could achieve that.
"January and February is always the most difficult time to get players through."
In response, Scudamore says the Premier League is in discussions with other major stakeholders in the English game about introducing a winter recess and suggested there was a universal desire to make it happen.
"We are not against it, a winter break. We are in discussions with the FA and Football League, it's an integrated calendar," Scudamore told Sky.
"I don't know how close or near or far we are because I wouldn't want to compromise those negotiations, but if the three bodies come up with a solution we then have to road test that with the clubs, the fans and everything else.
"There is a willingness to try and make it happen but I can't put anything like a time scale on it. I think if it was easy it would have been done already."
Both the FA and the Football League have proposed reforms to their competitions that could make room for a break in the fixture schedule.
The current 92-club, four-division system could become five tiers of 20 teams, in a move designed to ease fixture congestion floated by the Football League for introduction in the 2019/20 season, while the FA has put forward proposals to move FA Cup games to midweek evenings and scrapping replays.