A Premier League winter break "is unlikely to be introduced" until the '24-25 season at the earliest, according to Matt Hughes of the LONDON TIMES. The news comes after this week’s announcement of a "new overseas broadcast rights deal for the FA Cup." It is understood that the new £820M ($1B) contract, which will run for six seasons from '18-19, contains clauses stipulating that "the initial ties must take place over weekends, removing any scope to rearrange the fixture calendar to facilitate a mid-season shutdown." The Premier League and FA support the concept of a winter break "in theory," but neither organization "appears prepared to take the commercial hit necessary to make it happen." Overseas TV rights in particular are "far more lucrative for weekend matches" and, as a result, the Premier League and FA Cup are presented to potential broadcast partners as primarily weekend competitions. The Premier League’s existing £5.14B ($6.29B) domestic TV deal, which runs from '16-19, stipulates that between 32 and 34 of the 38 weekly rounds must take place on weekends, "with the variance due to the different timings of Christmas and other bank holidays in any given year." The Premier League and FA held talks following England’s "calamitous performance at Euro 2016 over how to go about introducing a break," after which EPL CEO Richard Scudamore said that there was "a willingness to make it happen," but achieving it has "proved elusive" (LONDON TIMES, 10/26).
