10 Jan 2008SFA chief executive calls for winter break

The chief executive of the SFA believes Scotland should reintroduce a winter break.

Gordon Smith raised the issue following the cancellation of the St Mirren v Rangers game due to be played at Love Street on January 8th.

According to Smith, matches should be played in fairer weather as at present poor conditions mean a number of games have to be called off.

"There are only two countries in Europe as far as I know that don't have a winter shutdown of some kind and they are Scotland and England, so when you take that into account it's unbelievable," he told the BBC.

"Even countries like Greece, Italy and France have a close down in winter and we don't so it's something that we should be looking at."

However, SPL secretary Iain Blair believes that reviving the winter break would lead to fixture congestion, and pointed out that this would be detrimental to the efforts of Scottish sides in European club competitions.

Having said this, he said he was in favour of the idea "in principle".

© Copyright