WILL CLARK - Is winter break help or hindrance to Premiership?
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I am one of the few people, there aren’t many of us, who would 100 per cent back the idea of moving the entire football season to a calendar year and being played over the summer.
I also accept that there is zero chance of this ever happening and resigned the football season will always be played through the winter, regardless of my discontent.
Which brings me to consider what is the point of a winter break in Scottish football and if it only adds to the problem of fixture congestion?
In Scotland, the Premiership has a winter break, starting on Wednesday, January 3 and will finish on Friday, January 19.
With a break in the top flight of just over two weeks, questions need to be asked if there is any real point of having such a short interlude in a country where the weather is quite difficult to predict.
Ross County have already had a number of games postponed this season due to weather, which included a waterlogged pitch at Dundee and the impact of Storm Babet forcing its match against St Mirren to be postponed in October.
The match between Livingston and Ross County at the Tony Macaroni Arena in December was postponed due to a frozen pitch.
All these matches were rearranged or will be rearranged adding to the fixture congestion and teams having to play more than once a week.
I think that the winter break does more harm than good.
There is no guarantee that the weather will make football matches unplayable.
Weather later in January and February poses just as big a threat to matches going ahead as it does at the start of the year.
No winter break has been introduced in the Championship, League One, League Two or Highland League.
This is a wise move for grounds and stadiums which are less resistant to the frozen elements which pose risks to matches.
It was also right to scrap replays for Scottish Cup matches and forcing teams to play again midweek during the coldest months of the year.
There is one solution to eliminating the winter break and that is by shifting the entire calendar season to the summer.
This is done in most Scandinavian countries, albeit due to their winters being far more harsher than ours.
But the football season in the Republic of Ireland has played summer football for the last 20 years and has been deemed a successful move.
A number of Premiership clubs will be looking at going abroad for a winter break training camp somewhere.
Others will look at staying in Scotland and putting in some work preparing for the 2023/24 season to resume later in the month.
I think there is a good cause for a debate on whether it is worth continuing having the winter break.
There are valid reasons to give players a rest as well as trying to combat the winter weather and avoiding particular travel difficulties during that time of year.
However, during that two-week break, the weather can prove no problematic than any other time during the winter period.
It may be worthwhile for the Premiership to discuss if the winter break is something everyone wants. If there is a better chance of games being spaced out, it might be worth scrapping.
