Sunderland boss Tony Mowbray believes the World Cup break could prompt a renewed push for English football to adopt an annual mid-season pause. Major leagues across Europe, including in Spain, Italy, Germany, and France, have long since taken a break for several weeks in winter, but in England there is no such hiatus with the festive schedule one of the busiest times of the season before early January brings the third round of the FA Cup - when teams from the Premier League and Championship enter the competition - which is traditionally one of the highlights of the campaign.
There has been talk over the years of introducing a midseason break in England but it has come to nothing. This term, however, teams in the top two divisions in England have had a mid-season break in November and extending into December to accommodate the World Cup in Qatar.
And having proved that a break can be built into the programme, it is possible that there will be fresh moves to make it an annual event, albeit likely of a shorter duration than the current pause. Having had three weeks without a fixture, Sunderland resume their Championship season tomorrow with a home game against Millwall.
