Premier League could introduce winter break

A winter break could be introduced to the Premier League in the near future, executive chairman Richard Scudamore has revealed.

The Premier League remains the only major European league that does not have a mid-season break and the lack of a rest period has been blamed for English clubs struggling in the latter stages of the Champions and Europa Leagues.

Managers have repeatedly called for a mid-season break to be introduced to prevent player fatigue, but until now their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.

New England manager Sam Allardyce believes a winter break "would help the Premier League and us at international level if we could achieve that" and the Premier League are open to the idea of introducing one but Scudamore admits it will be the 2019-20 season before one is in place.

"There are more prospects for it than I can remember," Scudamore stated. "The Football League and the FA, Martin Glenn particularly, wants to see it happen.

"We are having discussions but it's not easy due to the calendar of different competitions. If it can practically work we are up for listening to it. We are open-minded and keen if we can make it work. We have widened it out to the stakeholders with what is possible

"We all know what we have to do to create space and something has to give. It would have to be decided by (the) next TV market (agreement), which is sometime end of 2017, and start of 2018. "

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