| Summer football anyone? |
| Tuesday 26 January 2010 |
 by Dave Jones, Daily PostWITH the big freeze having had a destructive effect on soccer fixtures across Wales of late, the inevitable debate on whether summer football is the way forward has reared its head again. Welsh Premier secretary John Deakin, a long-time supporter of a summer switch, recently said it would be the best thing that could happen to the league. And WPL chairman Phil Woosnam recently told S4Cs Sgorio a winter break for the league was a definite future possibility. "We may look at the possibility of having a mid-winter break for say a couple of months and extending the season into May and June," said Woosnam. "I believe that would be a way of helping our European campaigns in the future because we haven't been very successful to date and a lot of that is due to the fact that it is out of season. But, if we did extend the season, that would help because the players would be match fit." The League of Ireland introduced summer football in 2003. Matches are played between March and November and the performances of Irish clubs in Europe have improved vastly since the change. The introduction of full-time professional football by a number of clubs has also attracted foreign players to the league whose coefficient has risen as a result. However, the costs associated with turning professional has crippled a lot of clubs. So, would summer football or a winter break work in Wales? The Daily Post asked a number of figures connected with the Welsh pyramid for their views. COLIN CATON - BALA TOWN MANAGER “I’m not one for summer football, I think football has always been a winter game so I wouldn’t particularly like to see it change. I can’t really see it changing a lot in terms of the Welsh sides' performances in Europe. "I think they lack in quality rather than fitness against some of the teams they have played. I even believe that if the Welsh teams were to start training 10 weeks before their ties it wouldn’t make a lot of difference to the final results. “The idea of finishing the league in May and perhaps starting it earlier in August would not be a bad one. "But if you had a winter break, it would need to be taken into account that the bank holiday fixtures of the Christmas period provide a big income for clubs in terms of attendances, so that would be a problem." GWYNFOR JONES - BANGOR CITY FC SECRETARY “From a club perspective, I wouldn't like to comment but personally I feel the idea of summer football for the Welsh Premier League would not work as the facilities are not made for it. “The pitches would be rock hard and not good to play on, and I don’t think it would be acceptable to have people travelling down some of the roads at that time of year. The traffic would just cause chaos and take teams ages to travel down to games from north to south. “I suppose it would improve the Welsh clubs' chances in Europe but there are other ways around that than summer football; for example, they could play the League Cup earlier to prepare teams. “As for a winter break, I would have no problem with that. I couldn’t see any problems with the league finishing in the middle of May. “All the clubs need to work together to do whatever they can to ease the fixture pile-up. I think the league secretary needs to stand up and revamp the whole fixture list. “Fixtures between north and south sides should always be played on weekends to avoid the traveling during weekdays.” MARK McGREGOR - GAP CONNAH'S QUAY MANAGER “I’m a bit of a traditionalist. I play in the league myself, so I would like to see things kept as they are and I wouldn’t really like to see football played in the summer. I suppose it would help the clubs when they play in Europe but what happens if they do progress because later rounds would be played out of season for Wales. The winter break would perhaps be a better option. “At the moment we’ve done pretty well with our fixtures, in fact we have just managed to rearrange a couple, so I don’t think we will necessarily find it hard to complete our fixtures before the league deadline.” DAVE MILNER - RHYL FC MANAGING DIRECTOR “Things are not irreversible and the idea of summer football is definitely worth a try in Wales, so I think we would be open to the change. “I know we have struggled in Europe in the past as we have come up against opposition who play a split season and are almost 10 games into their fixture list when we have played none, putting us at a big disadvantage. I think that we would go the whole way and opt for summer football rather than a winter break. A lot of things are up in the air at the moment with the prospect of playing 44 games next season and possibly the season after that and I think summer football would certainly help the situation." CHRIS O'NEAL - BETHESDA ATHLETIC MANAGER "Summer football for me is the definite way to go and the sooner changes are made the better. This season my own domestic league (Cymru Alliance) has already had more postponements than it has had in any of the last three seasons and we're only halfway through this season. "Also, with next season's pyramid changes, ie Super 12 etc, if we are to give the elite clubs a chance in Europe then we must ensure our clubs are on a level playing field when it comes to playing in these competitions - ie already in season." PHIL JONES - PORTHMADOG FC CHAIRMAN “It’s been talked about for a long time and as John Deakin said, I think more clubs are coming round to the idea. Personally, however, I am not in favour. "It would take a lot of investment. Our pitch is rock hard during the summer and I think you would get as many postponements through solid grounds as you would in the winter. We would be forced to spend a lot on keeping our pitch playable on things like sprinkler systems etc. “Saying that, I can see the benefits in terms of attendances without competition with the English leagues I suppose, but that hasn’t worked in Ireland. “I think if you have a winter break a lot of teams may end up losing momentum halfway through the season." ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST SUMMER FOOTBALL FOR
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