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| It's Only a Bit of Snow! |
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| All Hands to the Deck |
English Winters
In general, English winters are mild with wind and rain being the usual weather pattern for most of the country. Temperatures may fall, but snow is rarely such a problem to cause fixtures to be postponed. In the modern world, even open air stadia can be kept clear of the white stuff and the pitches playable by the use of covers, hot air blowers and undersoil heating. Most fans will also answer the call by their local team to help clear the playing surface and stadium of snow in order to get the game on. Occasionally, an English winter will be unseasonably inclement and fixtures are postponed due to pitches being unplayable, but this is an accepted aspect of football being the "Winter Game". The stoical nature of the British character has endured throughout the history of football and not playing just because the heavens have deposited a layer of snow on the pitch is an idea not contemplated by the majority of those involved in the game, whether player or spectator. So why has the "winter break" become an issue again?
Premier League
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| Moscow Winter |
Ever since the top English clubs broke away from the Football League in 1992 and formed the elitist
Premier League some of the players and managers have whinged about the need for a winter break, because kicking a bag of wind around for 90 minutes is oh so tiring! Not being satisfied with reducing the total number of games the teams have to play by restricting the membership of the top
English league to an initial total of 22 (the
old First Division consisted of 24 teams prior to the inception of the Premier League in 1992) and then 20 in 1995, managers and players have mooted the idea of taking a break from the football business during the winter months. For countries which suffer from particularly cold winters, when temperatures fall below freezing for weeks on end and snow on the ground is a perpetual feature of the season, then a winter break is a sensible option - unless, of course, the teams in the "frozen" countries' football league have covered stadia, in which case the need for a break is null and void. So, in Poland, Norway, Russia, etc., a winter break allows the harshest weather to pass and keeps the players safe from the injuries they may have sustained if forced to play on rock hard, frozen pitches. Is this really necessary in
England?
Tradition
Many of the calls for an
English football winter break have come from foreign managers and players who have come to ply their trade in the
UK. Their home football associations may have traditionally had a two week break in its fixtures, but is that any reason for them to call for the same here? What has caused the recent call for a break is probably their first experience of the "Festive Programme" where as many as four games are played within a week. This is an English tradition and football fans of all clubs look forwards to these games, especially as they normally involve a derby clash with one of their club's local rivals. The fact that all teams have to face this hectic part of the year means that there is no real advantage to any particular club - having a strong squad and a manager/coaching team who can exploit their club's pool of talent is one particular quality which may set them above the rest of the teams in their league, but the pressure is the same for everyone.
Louis van Gaal, the Manchester United Manager, has added his voice to the call for a change in the "Festive Programme" citing recovery times for the human body. Given that footballers are athletes in the prime of fitness, they should be able to recover quickly and within the 48 hour timeframe he quotes. If they don't, then the squad system should be utilised to rotate players through the team filling the spaces vacated by those players "exhausted" by their 90 minutes of hard work. And now, Wayne Rooney, the Manchester United Captain has come out in support of his manager. He has voiced concerns over the potential for injuries during this time, but the chance of coming to harm is the same whatever time of the year the match is played. Rooney is of working class stock and started his career playing for
Everton FC, the team he supported as a child. Surely he understands the need to keep the "Festive Programme" of fixtures as part of the traditional English football calendar?
Supporters
Although the Premier League is steadily driving away the the working class fan away from actively supporting the game by the huge prices they are expected to pay for tickets, the "Festive Programme" is perhaps the one time many cash strapped supporters find the funds to go to a match. Families tend to attend matches together at Christmas and the New Year and the atmosphere is always special, with colourful Christmas jumpers, Santa hats and other fancy dress being present on the terraces, and in the stands. For those supporters who make Christmas happen by working long hours for minimal pay in the months leading up to December, the Boxing Day and New Year football matches are events to look forward to and help sustain them in their labours. For players, who are paid obscene amounts of money to kick a ball around for an hour and a half, to tell these fans that they are tired after a match and need two weeks off in winter to rest is insulting in the extreme. Perhaps if footballers worked a ten or twelve hour shift, six days a week for the unrelenting two months before Christmas, then they could claim to be "tired".
Change?
The world turns and change is inevitable. However, some things should remain for the sake of tradition and the "Festive Programme" should stay as it is. If professional athletes, fitter than any of those on the terraces and in the stands could ever hope to be, find that they cannot cope with the rigours of playing up to four games in a week at Christmas and the New Year, then why not have that break they so crave, but donate the wages the fans pay them to charity? After all, in any stadium up and down the country, there are thousands of supporters who would sell their granny just to have the chance to do for a few minutes what the likes of Wayne Rooney is paid handsomely to do for a living all year round.
