Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson believes English soccer would benefit from a mid-season winter break.
English football's most successful manager says all other leading European leagues have a winter recess from late December to mid or late January, a fact that - in Ferguson's book - was all too evident at last summer's World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea.
'You saw how Germany went into the World Cup, one of the poorest German teams of all time, and yet they got to the final. You have to say their break helped them,' Ferguson was quoted as saying in the Sunday Times newspaper.
'Without question I think it would be very difficult for an England team to win the World Cup given the seasons we now have,' the paper further quotes Ferguson.
Filed by Tom Grealis
