The festive season: a time for rejoicing, a time for giving, a time for remembering and, inevitably, a time for once again reopening the debate over whether there should be a winter break in the English game.
They’re only being asked to kick a football around for a few hours over Christmas, not spend time down a mine- James Calvert
Every year, without fail, as the Christmas and New Year football programme gathers momentum, a variety of so-called experts crawl out of the woodwork and start their annual bleating for the introduction of a mini close-season.
It’s better for the players, it’s better for the fans and it’s better for the future success of the English national team, they squeal in unison. And then there’s the weather to think of, they invariably add, in that typically English way.
Well, I’m sorry but I don’t think English football needs a break. For any of the above reasons.
Let’s start off with the players, shall we? A collection of young, fit and healthy young men on annual salaries that most of us will struggle to earn in a lifetime.
Are you telling me these incredibly privileged few can’t afford to give up their festive seasons for a few years in return for bundles of cash, oodles of fame and the chance to do for a living what most of us would pay to do?
And don’t tell me that only applies to those at the top of the pyramid because, yes, lower league players may get paid less, but they are still only being asked to kick a football around for a few hours over Christmas, not spend time down a mine or working in the emergency room at the local hospital.
If they aren’t prepared to endure a little festive disruption, then they should go and get proper jobs like the rest of us. End of that argument.
And then we have the fans. How on earth can abolishing the Christmas programme be anything other than a kick in the teeth for supporters? I think I speak for the masses when I say I love the way the games come thick and fast at this time of year.
Ah, but a winter break would give people more time and money to spend with and on the family, the pro-break campaigners squeal.
I don’t know about you but I think football is the buffer zone that ensures you don’t have an overdose of family at Christmas, a little bit of calm in a turbulent storm of shopping, parties and making small talk with relatives you didn’t even know you had.
Attendances at grounds in all divisions in England go up over Christmas and the New Year. Fact. And that’s because people have time on their hands and a desire to spend at least a bit of that time watching football.
Then there is the national team element. A winter break, bringing England in line with most of Europe, would undoubtedly benefit the Three Lions.
No it wouldn’t. A decent manager may benefit the Three Lions, as would a few talented players and an overall change in fortune at major tournaments. But a winter break would make not one iota of difference to the England team.
When Maradona used the ‘hand of God’, I’m sure the first thing that went through Sir Bobby Robson’s mind was ‘now you see, that wouldn’t have happened if we had a winter break’.
And what about Gareth Southgate’s infamous penalty miss in Euro ’96? Or the semi-final defeat at Italia 90? Or Frank Lampard’s goal that never was in last summer’s World Cup?
Were any of those a direct consequence of playing games from August through to May without the players having time to fly away and top up their tans over Christmas?
Don’t make me laugh.
Which brings me finally to the weather argument. Yes, it can get a bit nippy in England over the festive season.
And the occasional flake of snow makes some matches tricky to play and can even lead to the odd postponement.
But here’s a newsflash for you. It can also get a bit chilly in England in November, February, March and April. Just because you decide to have a winter break from mid-December to mid-January, for example, does not mean Mother Nature is going to work in sync with you. Quite probably the opposite.
All in all, I can’t find one valid reason for English football to break with its long-standing tradition of squeezing in as much football as possible over the festive season.
It’s been like that for decade after decade and it should remain the same forever as far as I am concerned. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Your say
• “Having followed your column for many years I have often felt compelled to write in but have always ended up being too lazy, for want of a better excuse.
“However, your recent thoughts on racism in football have inspired me to finally put pen to paper. Surprisingly, for once I find myself totally in agreement with you.
“Racism does, I totally agree, have no place in football. But I believe the pendulum has swung far too far in the opposite direction now with people charged, banned and publically pilloried for saying something that is not racist but merely fact.
“Can players no longer call each other fat, thin, old, young, bald or hairy on the pitch either?
“Are they expected to think and ponder on everything they say before they say it, just in case they are hauled up before the authorities for inciting racism, sexism, sizeism, ageism or any other ‘ism’ that may be dreamt up?
“Football is a man’s game and we can’t be prosecuting players every time someone says something in the heat of the moment which is possibly, maybe racially offensive.
“No to racism, absolutely. But an even bigger ‘no’ to sanitising football on the grounds of overbearing political correctness.”
R. Hunt, e-mail.
• “I must congratulate you on your excellent weekly articles on UK football.
“Your opinion piece on racism hit the nail on the head when you said the FA has gone over the top when giving the eight-match ban to Liverpool’s Luis Suarez.
“I agree wholeheartedly with you. In the heat of the moment on the pitch all things are said between the players.
“I clearly remember in my youth watching matches in the UK when the four-nations matches were played between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
“Watching behind the goalposts with fellow youngsters pre-war, one often heard insults between rival players or from the stands, such as “You b... English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish swine!” – (or much more vile or insulting language) – go unpunished, and rightly so.
“It was part of the game. And at the end of the game it was usually handshakes all round.
“What surprises me is that I understand in the Suarez case it is just one player’s word against the other – both non-English speaking – and it is the white man who is not believed.”
Stanley Clews, e-mail.
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Twitter: @maltablade