Sean Dyche gets his wish, but Jurgen Klopp may be disappointed as Premier League breaks schedule

The Premier League has scrapped the winter break as part of a radical change to the English football calendar.

The decision is accompanied by plans to move the FA Cup final until the penultimate weekend of the season and the controversial call to discard the repetitions of the first round itself onwards from next season.

A statement on the FA website said: “The mid-season break is being removed from the calendar to allow for a Premier League start date in mid-August.

“This longer summer break allows all Premier League clubs to be in a better position to ensure players have a consecutive three-week break in the summer.

“This takes into account expert advice from the medical and technical departments, who value a longer period of complete rest in summer than a short break in winter.”

First introduced in 2019/20, the mid-season break has always been a divisive issue among Premier League managers.

A manager who is firmly against is Everton Boss Sean Dyche, who earlier this season said: “I don't see the point of the pause. It's not beneficial and I would scrap it.”

“It would be better to lose a couple of games in December and put them in January to distribute it.

“With more games (together) the big clubs will surely win because of their great squads. If you are like us and you get injured, you are at your limit. I would be surprised if that break did not disappear from the schedule, we will see.”

Dyche's views follow Arsene Wenger's comments in 2015: “I would cry if you changed that because it's part of English tradition and English football.

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“It's a very important part of us being popular in the world, that no one works at Christmas and everyone watches the Premier League.”

The Arsenal legend's views came in response to Louis van Gaal claiming the lack of winter break was “bad”.

The then Manchester United manager said: “There is no winter break and I think that is the worst thing about this culture. It is not good for English football,” he said. manchester united the manager said.

“It is not good for the clubs or the national team. How many years has it been since England won anything? Because all the players are exhausted at the end of the season.”

The decision to reorganize the match calendar is due to the increasing demands of UEFA competitions, leading to jam-packed match schedules for those competing on the continent.

Liverpool Boss Jurgen Klopp was among those who spoke out about it, but while he opposed a winter break, he admitted it was necessary to help his team compete.

Speaking earlier this year, Klopp said: “You don't want to have a four-week break or something mid-season, but after a very intense period, having these few days was very important.”

The changes will come into force from the 2024/25 campaign.