Eriksson repeats call for winter break

Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has re-iterated his call for the English Premier League to take a winter break in a bid to boost the national team's chances of winning a major tournament. Eriksson, in charge of England from 2001 to 2006, is convinced the team's long wait to add another significant piece of silverware to the 1966 FIFA World Cup™ won on home soil, will continue until the Premier League suspends some of its fixtures over the Christmas and New Year period. "The Premier League must take a winter break if they want to win the World Cup," Eriksson told BBC Radio Five, with England now qualified for Brazil 2014 under Roy Hodgson. "It's going to be easy if they do it. It's not that difficult. Take one weekend in January without football. Give the players before that weekend seven days off. Then you take them in to prepare for the game after that," the Swede added. "England has to find a way to do it, because all the other countries in the world are doing it." Eriksson tried to get the break introduced during his time in charge of England and was particularly keen to have one ahead of the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany. But he failed, having found objections from Premier League clubs that the fans looked forward to Christmas and New Year fixtures too powerful to overcome "Everyone agreed with me -- everyone I talked to," he recalled. "We presented a lot of things -- everybody said 'yes, yes, yes'. In the end, the Premier League didn't accept it. "It made me very disappointed because I think everybody agrees that if you take a break it will be very good for England as a national team. "It's not that difficult to do -- maybe the easiest thing. I know the players would love it and they would feel better the rest of the season." Source: Fifa.com