GeneralCartmanLee 313 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith wants to introduce a two-month winter break. With Motherwell's match against Celtic on Sunday being played on a dreadful surface at Fir Park, Smith reckons the game would be improved by a shutdown. He would like the season to kick off in August, close during January and February, and then run until June. Smith said: "We're in discussions about whether we can make changes and looking at things we agree can be improved." In December last year, a spokesman for the Scottish Premier League said: "Season 2009/10 will not include a winter break given the constraints presented by the early finish to the season required by Fifa ahead of the World Cup finals in South Africa." If there is no movement for next season, Smith's best hope would be to convince the leagues to adopt the break from season 2009/10. Some clubs are concerned that a winter shutdown would mean they have no income from gate receipts for the duration of the break. However, Smith says he would consider easing the lean financial spell for clubs. "The cashflow problem from a winter break would only be an initial one as you would still end up with the same number of games over the course of a year," said Smith. "But we might need to look at loans. If there was an agreement, we could see if there was some way of taking care of that financial aspect." Meanwhile, Motherwell general manager Leeann Dempster says the club will spend £250,000 in the summer in an attempt to overhaul the Fir Park pitch One of the only good things about the SPL when it started was the winter break, i hope Smith can sort this out Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Youllneverwinaway 0 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Would be better with: a) Summer Football b) Smith not needing to worry about Winter breaks. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Right_To_Censor 1,951 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 who the fuck changed it anyways? taylor, gold or some other fanny??? i miss old farry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rfc72 0 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Would be a good idea to save pitches getting into the state that Motherwells is currently in which is a disgrace Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poacher 0 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 The problem with the winter break is predicting the worst of the weather. A mild December and January could be screwed with postponements in a bitter cold February. I think better pitch facilities is a better answer for the SPL. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ManchestGer 347 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 The problem with the winter break is predicting the worst of the weather. A mild December and January could be screwed with postponements in a bitter cold February. I think better pitch facilities is a better answer for the SPL. I agree on that. I was never so keen on the winter break anyway but some clubs need to get their act together and make sure they look after their pitch properly Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralCartmanLee 313 Posted February 24, 2009 Author Share Posted February 24, 2009 The problem with the winter break is predicting the worst of the weather. A mild December and January could be screwed with postponements in a bitter cold February. I think better pitch facilities is a better answer for the SPL. I think the rest forn the pitches is part of the point here...... Also our league starting slightly earlier would help in the early rounds of the champions league, if we need to play in them...... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poacher 0 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 The problem with the winter break is predicting the worst of the weather. A mild December and January could be screwed with postponements in a bitter cold February. I think better pitch facilities is a better answer for the SPL. I think the rest forn the pitches is part of the point here...... Also our league starting slightly earlier would help in the early rounds of the champions league, if we need to play in them...... 2 very good points there actually. Especially the match practice for the CL. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueballss 2,975 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 The problem with the winter break is predicting the worst of the weather. A mild December and January could be screwed with postponements in a bitter cold February. I think better pitch facilities is a better answer for the SPL. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
simplythebest 11,453 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 The worst of the weather has come in February so a winter break could end up being very pointless. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueballss 2,975 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 no brainer really!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Hammer 11 2,671 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 How about he trys to get the sky contract back so we can inject some cash into the spl maybe then that could be invested in better pitch facilities Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac444 6 Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 The worst of the weather has come in February so a winter break could end up being very pointless. Not really, if you read the whole story in the OP, as it says it would be a 2month winter break, the two months stated as being January and February. The original winter was only 2 or 3 weeks wasn't it? I'm sure it wasn't as long as 2 months anyway. I do think that a winter break be it in December, January or February would be beneficial regardless of the weather as someone has said at the very least its giving the pitch a rest and allowing the ground staff to get the pitch back into a decent order for the remainder of the season. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaguy51 912 Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Never understood why football isn't more of a summer sport. It'd be better for both fans and players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeneralCartmanLee 313 Posted February 25, 2009 Author Share Posted February 25, 2009 How about he trys to get the sky contract back so we can inject some cash into the spl maybe then that could be invested in better pitch facilities That would be the SPL mate not the SFA The SFA have a contract with sky Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sequimur 0 Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Football's a winter game. Never seen a good match on a hot day. Seen some belters in glaur and muck. But whether it's winter or summer, no breaks. Interrupts the momentum of the season. Mid season breaks, twenty minute half times. Why bother with the game at all? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poacher 0 Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Slightly off at a tangent here. what would be the actual cost of putting some kind of roof over your average SPL ground? It's the constant pissing rain that's as bad as anything else for pitches. Also, roofed stadiums might help attract more skillful thin-skinned Latin types...(!!) As for summer football, that's what the Swedes and Norwegians do. Common sense in their view. Probably not a bad idea for us either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poacher 0 Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Slightly off at a tangent here. what would be the actual cost of putting some kind of roof over your average SPL ground? It's the constant pissing rain that's as bad as anything else for pitches. Also, roofed stadiums might help attract more skillful thin-skinned Latin types...(!!) As for summer football, that's what the Swedes and Norwegians do. Common sense in their view. Probably not a bad idea for us either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
papaguy51 912 Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Football's a winter game. Never seen a good match on a hot day. Seen some belters in glaur and muck. But whether it's winter or summer, no breaks. Interrupts the momentum of the season. Mid season breaks, twenty minute half times. Why bother with the game at all? Yer arse, that's nonsense. You've never seen a good game in the summer? Have you missed the 20-odd World/European Championships since 1960? Some of the best games ever have been played in the summer. Let me think - Ibrox on a lovely June day with a perfect pitch over Fir Park in the middle of December being played on sand. Hard choice, eh? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac444 6 Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Slightly off at a tangent here. what would be the actual cost of putting some kind of roof over your average SPL ground? It's the constant pissing rain that's as bad as anything else for pitches. Also, roofed stadiums might help attract more skillful thin-skinned Latin types...(!!) As for summer football, that's what the Swedes and Norwegians do. Common sense in their view. Probably not a bad idea for us either. Most roofed stadiums have problems with their pitch, due to lack of sunlight for growing the grass. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
outlaw69uk 123 Posted February 25, 2009 Share Posted February 25, 2009 Its a good idea, one of the pitfalls here is, what happens every 2 years, when there is a world Cup or a Euro championships? Thats where the problem of summer football falls down Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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