FA look for winter break solution

13 April 2012

The Football Association were today looking into how to save their plans for a winter break after their challenge cup committee placed a preservation order on FA Cup replays.

Earlier this year, Sven-Goran Eriksson managed to persuade Barclaycard Premiership chairmen to vote in favour of a two-year trial for a mid-season break.

This would ensure all Premiership players had a week completely off from January next year, with a two-week break in total from competitive action.

Eriksson had indicated that the likely solution to easing the ensuing increase in fixture congestion would be scrapping replays in the FA Cup fifth and sixth rounds.

But although replays have already been ended for both the semi-finals and final, the FA's challenge cup committee have instead protected the competition's traditions by ruling that enough is enough.

At their meeting earlier this week, the committee made it clear that they wanted the FA to look for other potential solutions.

Leading FA figures insist that this does not necessarily mean the winter break proposal will have to be scrapped.

However, the governing body must now investigate back-up plans to create the gap in what is already a packed fixture schedule.

These could potentially involve scrapping the two-legged nature of the Carling Cup semi-finals or introducing another midweek fixture into the Premiership schedule.

Other alternatives include starting the season earlier or ending it later, although clubs would be reluctant to play too many games in the holiday month of August, while Eriksson would not want the build-up to major tournaments to be affected.