Winter break plans revealed

The Football Association vice-chairman David Dein yesterday revealed the first steps towards a winter break in the Premiership season.

Dein, the vice-chairman of Arsenal, is a strong advocate of the proposal, as is the England coach Sven Goran Eriksson. Others supportive of the change, which could come into force as early as the 2003-04 season, are the Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger and the Liverpool manager, Gérard Houllier.

That pair and the 18 other top-flight managers will have the opportunity to nudge the idea towards reality later this summer when they gather at a twice-yearly Premier League technical meeting. "If they are in favour, it will go back to the clubs and if everyone is of the same opinion, that it is a good idea, we can look at getting it arranged," Dein said. "We have to consider how to get the best out of the product, this will maximise it as we try to make sure the players are as fit as possible during the course of the season."

The timing of the break, unlike the current ones in Spain and Italy, would not impinge on the festive period traditionally so popular in England. Dein said: "After the New Year's Day game there should be something like a three-week break, which would give the players an opportunity to go off somewhere on holiday for a couple of weeks. It will be good for everyone whether they be managers, players or fans; it will be good for the game as a product."

The intensity of English football can take its toll and Eriksson was concerned at the hectic schedule his England players faced before they headed to Japan and Korea. "Sven thought that at the World Cup some of the players were not physically at the their peak," Dein said.

To ensure that clubs did not take advantage of the season lull and arrange lucrative tours to places like the Far East, the Football Association would not sanction matches.

Birmingham City's chairman, David Gold, is not convinced by the proposals. "Winter breaks don't always coincide with bad weather," he said. "The current system works and, if it ain't broke, don't fix it."