Premier League announced new huge fixture schedule decision impacting Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal
Premier League announced new huge fixture schedule decision impacting Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal
The Premier League have announced the winter break will be scrapped going forward with a later start date set for August 2024.
A number of years ago, the break was introduced to help teams recover from the relentless schedule but those weeks off have been added to the start of the season. With the 2024/25 campaign to begin in the wake of the European Championships, the decision has been made to allow every player a minimum consecutive three-week break in the summer with the Community Shield set for Saturday, August 10.
A reason for the change has arrived because of numerous FA Cup decisions, two of which will result in replays being scrapped and dedicated FA Cup weekends being put in place. The revamped Champions League format, which will result in teams that have qualified playing more games, is another reason for replays being removed in an attempt to ease the fixture burden.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp was one Premier League manager in favour of a Premier League winter break, following on from his previous rants to do with the intense schedule.
Earlier this year, he told Sky Sports: “You don’t want to have a four-week break or something like that in the middle of the season but after a very intense period, having these few days was very important.” In this season’s calendar, there was no weekend in January without Premier League football with ten fixtures spread across two weeks.
With the new changes, dedicated FA Cup weekends will be in place for the fourth, fifth rounds and the quarter-finals. Fifth round action is usually played in a midweek but that will also now change to allow for complete focus on FA Cup action with no Premier League football to be played over those weekends.
