Roberto Di Matteo wants winter break
Thursday 23rd December 2010, 1:00PM GMT.
Albion boss Roberto Di Matteo has called for a mid-winter break to avoid a repeat of Sunday’s Black Country derby ‘white out.’
The Baggies head coach believes English football should adopt a break through the Christmas period to limit the risk of winter weather freezing off matches.
The Hawthorns clash between Albion and Wolves was among seven Premier League fixtures postponed at the weekend because of heavy snow and Di Matteo believes England should introduce a December break.
He said: “We’re not living in the Middle East or Africa. We live in England, in northern Europe. Let’s have a winter break. Every year it snows, the pitches are frozen, training pitches are frozen and it’s not safe for supporters.
“I know it can snow in January but the probability that it snows this heavily is less and the temperature doesn’t drop as much.
“Every year we have to postpone games because of the weather conditions. And it doesn’t come out of the blue because geographically it’s where we are.
“It snows, or at least the likelihood is very high.”
Di Matteo believes the fixtures lost to a winter break could be accommodated comfortably with extra midweek matches and a short extension to the season.
He said: “The season ends on May 22 and it starts in August. But in March we have two games. Can we not put another game in there, even though it’s international break at the end of March?
“We have an FA Cup match somewhere too, but from March 1 to March 9 could we not slip an extra midweek game in there somewhere?
“Put one in there and another one or two at the end of May when the pitches are beautiful and it’s warm and people will flock to the stadium.
“It’s the best temperature to play then, just when we stop. We could even go on and play a game on June 4 – two weeks later.
“I know there is a Boxing Day tradition but you will still get packed stadia later in the year because games could be decisive, it’s less dangerous and a better climate with nicer pitches.
“People will enjoy it more.”
UK Sport
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