Football Association chairman Geoff Thompson has given his support to calls for a winter break
Thompson says he can understand why England head coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and club managers such as Arsene Wenger are in favour of a mid-season break, but stresses that the calendar may be too busy to allow it.
He believes a rest for the players could help English clubs in the latter stages of European competition.
"I can well understand managers wanting a winter break," said Thompson.
"Other countries in Europe have a break and it would be very interesting to find out statistically if clubs from those countries do better when they come back in to the second phase of the European competitions than clubs like ours. I
have a feeling they may do better.
"I can see the advantages of it, but it's trying to fit it into a very exhaustive calendar.
"It would have to be a collective decision by the FA and the leagues and periodically the question does arise. It's a question of when do you do it and is the timetable right?
"The clubs don't like to start too early and we would prefer the FA Cup to be the last match of the season and it's a question of how late you can take that.
"It's a very long season, the Premiership is 20 clubs and we have two cup competitions, but the calendar has eased a little bit with UEFA removing the second group stage of the Champions League."