The Premier League has scrapped its winter break for the 2020-21 season because of fixture congestion resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.
The upcoming campaign will be five weeks shorter than a standard season because of the late end to 2019-20. Last season, each team had one weekend and one full midweek off in February.
When the break was brought in, the Football Association said it would “greatly benefit club and country” before England’s Euro 2020 campaign. But the tournament was postponed until 2021 because of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Any hope of a similar break before the rescheduled Euros has been wrecked by the need to cram three domestic competitions – plus European club and international competitions – into the reduced season.
The best the Premier League have been able to do is split the 18th round of matches across two midweeks – 13 and 20 January.
