The Premier League have scrapped the the winter break as part of a radical shake-up to the English football calendar.

The decision comes alongside plans to move the FA Cup final to the penultimate weekend of the season and the controversial call to scrap replays from the first-round proper onwards from next season.

A statement on The FA’s website said: “The mid-season break is removed from the calendar to allow a mid-August start date for the Premier League.

“This longer summer break allows all Premier League clubs to be better able to ensure that players get a consecutive three-week break in the summer.

“This takes into account expert advice from medical and technical departments, which values a longer period of complete rest in the summer rather than a short break in the winter.”

Having been first introduced in 2019/20, the mid-season break has always been a divisive topic among Premier League managers.

One manager who is firmly against it is Everton boss Sean Dyche, who earlier this season said: “I don’t see the point of the break. It’s not beneficial and I’d take it away.

“It would be better to lose a couple of fixtures in December and put them in January to spread it out.

“With more games (close together) the big clubs are bound to gain because of their big squads. If you’re like us and get injuries, you’re stretched. I’d be surprised if that break doesn’t disappear from the scheduling. We will see.”

Dyche’s views follow on from Arsene Wenger stating in 2015: “I would cry if you changed that because it’s part of English tradition and English football.

“It’s a very important part of us being popular in the world, that nobody works at Christmas and everybody watches the Premier League.”

The Arsenal legend’s views came in response to Louis van Gaal claiming that a lack of winter break was ‘evil’.

The then-Manchester United boss said: “There is no winter break and I think that is the most evil thing of this culture. It is not good for English football,” the Manchester United manager said.

“It is not good for the clubs or the national team. England haven’t won anything for how many years? Because all the players are exhausted at the end of the season.”

The decision to reshuffle the fixture schedule comes due to the growing demands of UEFA’s competitions, leading to jam-packed fixture lists for the those competing on the continent.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been among those to have spoken out about it, but while he has been against a winter break, he did admit that it was needed to help his side compete.

Speaking earlier this year, Klopp said: “You don’t want to have a four-week break or something like that in the middle of the season but after a very intense period, having these few days was very important.”

GET MORE NEWS HERE