Why Fergie and Wenger must put their own houses in order before calling for winter breaks

By Martin Lipton in Laptop with Martin Lipton

Published 11:30 21/07/10

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Nice to see Sir Alex Ferguson joining the call for a winter break.

But rather than blaming the FA for England's players turning up tired and listless in South Africa, maybe the Manchester United boss should look at putting his own house in order first.

Even if Wembley chiefs wanted to give players two weeks or more off at the turn of the year, they could not.

The reason? Simple. Decisions like that are taken by the Premier League. Or to be more accurate, the clubs themselves.

The same clubs that have vetoed all previous attempts to introduce a winter break, as well as calls to reduce the number of teams in the top flight to create more space in the calendar.

You can understand their position. Two fewer clubs means two fewer home games. Less money through the gate. Less spent on merchandise and catering. And, probably, less chance of the inexorable rise of the television income continuing into the next contract in three years' time.

Yet for there to be any chance of a winter break being introduced, as Fabio Capello called for in the aftermath of the World Cup debacle Fergie also blamed on the players having nothing left in their legs, the clubs have to be at the vanguard of that movement.

And of those clubs, nobody has a louder voice than United. Not just Fergie himself, the Grand Old Man of British football, the one manager who tells the Premier League and the FA how high they have to jump.

But also chief executive David Gill, arguably the most influential club representative in the game, a member of the FA board, trusted by most people in football.

If Fergie and Gill started to push for a winter break - and didn't just see it as an opportunity to take the Old Trafford club on a money-spinning tour but a genuine chance to let their players recharge the batteries for the crucial second part of the season - then the momentum would build to the point where it could not be stopped.

Indeed, given their strength, the Ferguson/Gill axis could bring the whole debate to a close, with the break enshrined in the rule-book, within two years if they so chose, carrying the clubs with them.

The Premier League insists it does care about the future of the England team and it has shown a readiness and desire to back the bid to bring the 2018 World Cup to this country - with the decision to be taken by FIFA on December 2.

This season's introduction of the home-grown player quota rule, forcing all clubs to have at least eight players, over the age of 21, who have been developed and  groomed in England, in their first team squads of 25, is a significant step in the right direction.

EU laws mean that the players do not have to be English-qualified - although if they have grown up here they could be assimilated into the England set-up by changing their nationality - but it puts pressure on the clubs to find the next generation, rather than simply buying it in.

If there were doubts over whether the League meant it, then they were surely ended by Arsene Wenger's weekend moan about the repercussions of the new policy.

Wenger was speaking from self-interest as he complained that Arsenal will be forced to sell foreign players to meet the quota requirements.

And that is the clearest signal that the League have done something that is about the collective interest of the country, rather than the individual requirements of its 20 constituent members.

Of course, there must be other steps and sacrifices made to make the winter break a reality.

The Carling Cup does appear an increasing anachronism, especially for the clubs whose real knock-out focus is the Champions League.

And with FA Cup semi-finals now settled on the day, surely it is time to consider scrapping all replays in the competition, ensuring a winner emerges - even if through the artificial means of a penalty shoot-out - on the original date.

Doing away with replays will also create room in the calendar for games to be re-scheduled in the event of a serious cold snap, as we have witnessed in each of the past two seasons.

Yet without the will of the clubs, under the guiding hand of League chief Richard Scudamore, it will not happen.

The winter break is not the be-all and end-all solution for England's World Cup under-achievement. The bigger problem will remain between the ears of the players.

But it would be a start. So, Alex, if you really mean it, grab the bull by the horns. You'd even be putting England ahead of United.

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