Christmas is here and it´s time for the annual debate about whether England´s Premier League should follow the rest of Europe and introduce a winter break … you know, to give the players (and fans) a much needed rest, to ensure they´re not all too exhausted to give their best at the business end of the Champions League.

Except this year, there is no real debate (with apologies to Martin O´Neill). This is an argument that has been settled decisively in favour of the status quo. In fact, I think we´ll see more pressure on the other big leagues to copy the Premier League and go hell for leather over the festive season.

Can you imagine if West End theatres decided they were going to close down over the Christmas period to give the actors a rest? If TV stations said there would be no live programmes for a fortnight this year? If Apple Inc said they were taking a break from selling iPods over the holidays?

The Premier League understands that it is pushing a spectacle, a show, entertainment, and not just organising a sporting event. Why on earth would you close things down when people have more leisure time … when the kids are off school and the adults are off work?

Sure, you could still have a winter break in January or February, but why give up the spotlight to the leagues in Spain, Italy or Germany? Why give up your unique selling point? For the good of the national team? What a quaint idea. And anyway, that´s surely irrelevant now given the international flavour of the English game.

I blogged last year about the unusual level of interest in the Premier League in Spain these days. Where once Spain looked down on English football as a very inferior branch of the family, this time last year it was wall to wall Premier League in the Spanish media and the level is cranking up again, it seems.

I don´t think it will be long before Spain has a rethink on the calendar.