ENGLISH football’s first winter break will take place in 2020, the FA has confirmed.
Wembley chief executive Martin Glenn revealed Prem bosses will re-write their rule-book to prevent clubs taking advantage of the gap by going on money-making overseas trips.
Glenn is convinced the result will be better performances by English sides in the Champions League AND improved tournament results for the Three Lions.
Glenn said: “It’s not a panacea, but every other big country has some form of winter break.
“Everyone is a winner in this. You will see it in better-rested players and better Champions League knock-out performances.
“England players will be more rested for major tournaments.
“The other big nations they all have some kind of break. Technical experts in those countries say it’s as much the mental break as the physical one.
“There is nothing as intense as an English Premier League season, with 38 games at all count for something.
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“The hope is that players will be more mentally rested, which makes them fresher.
“From an England point of view, that hopefully means going into end of season tournaments with a bit more verve and vim.”
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Under the long-discussed plans, to come into effect in the 2019-20 season, the FA Cup fourth round weekend will be the last set of games before the break.
The next set of ten Premier League fixtures will be split across the following two weekends.
It means half of the 20 sides will play over the first weekend in February, with the other half playing the following week.
Prem chiefs agreed the “split weekend” and factored it into their new TV deal, with five of the ten matches over the two weeks being screened by BT Sport as part of the £90million deal for 20 extra games announced yesterday.
All top flight players will get at least a ten-day break – EFL fixtures will take place as normal.
Meanwhile Glenn agreed to give up the FA Cup fifth round weekend with ties played to a finish, including penalty shoot-outs if required, in the next midweek.
Glenn, though, revealed clubs would not be allowed to use the gap to sneak off to far flung parts of the world to add yet more cash to their coffers.
But he pledged there would be no other changes to the FA Cup, saying: “This is not a way of making money. The Premier League also feel strongly about it.
“This will be in their rules, so there is absolutely no chance of the clubs not observing it properly. This has to be a player break.
“I wouldn’t call it an achievement. Every England manager for the past 25 years has said ‘wouldn’t it be a good idea’ and it hasn’t been able to happen.
“Basically, to make it happen, somebody has to give up a weekend and you also need good will between the FA and the Leagues.
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“There won’t be a change to third and fourth round replays. A core essence of the Cup is the giant-killing in the third and fourth rounds.
“But we need to make the FA Cup relevant to today’s generation and also the big clubs.
“Reducing the number of replays, being a bit flexible about it, is all part of the justification.
“The FA Cup is not the same competition it was 20-odd years ago. It has always innovated, so it wasn’t a huge argument.
“People saw the sense of it and everybody involved in the FA, with a view to the England performance, sees it as a bit of a ‘why not?’ rather than a ‘why?’.
“We felt a movement in the fifth round was a price worth paying.”
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