EPL may have to cancel the mid-season break due to busy calendar

The Premier League may have to scrap its mid-season break because of an overcrowded football calendar. The change could come into effect in the 2024–2025 season with FIFA’s revamped 32-team Club World Cup set to take place in the summer of 2025.

The Premier League introduced the break–which this season will take the form of a structured two-week period in January–in 2018 to ease the workload on players.

The chief executive, Richard Masters, admits it is under discussion as it could become unworkable. “It is one of the things we are discussing with the FA [Football Association] and EFL [English Football League].

“We want the Premier League, the big cup competitions, and the EFL to flourish, and that requires an adjustment,” he said.

“It is the last season where it’s recognisable under the current international match calendar, where the Premier League starts on a particular weekend.

“The FA Cup final has its own weekend, and you have the Champions League after that and a mid-season player break in the middle.

“A lot will have to change because of the additional European dates. We are also very much aware of the changes to FIFA’s competitions.

“The World Cup is getting bigger; an additional group stage game is going to be added. Inevitably, that’s going to take up more calendar space.

“You obviously have the views of the players’ union, and the players being expressed very strongly now.

“From a league perspective, the European Leagues and World Leagues Forum are very clear on this. There has to be a forum for domestic competitions to discuss the impact of regional and global decisions on the calendar.

“There’s lots of dialogue with UEFA, very little dialogue with FIFA.”

Almost double the usual amounts of yellow cards were shown over the first weekend of the EFL season as the crackdown on time-wasting and player behaviour came into force.

Masters expects the same in the top flight until players and managers get used to the law changes.

“I think these things will level out,” he added. “It’s not the first crackdown that the governing bodies have had, in relation to surrounding referees, for example.

“Players and managers need time to adjust, and actually, the officials need time to adjust.

“But over a period of time, rather than it to sort of dissipate and not have an impact, everyone’s behaviour adjusts and things settle down.

“There will be more yellow cards. I don’t know whether a doubling of yellow cards is a good thing or a bad thing.

“It certainly sends a message that the officials are true to their word.”

NAN