The upcoming international break will last a full three weeks – Here’s why

It's a week longer than last year's version!

It may not feel like long since the 2026 World Cup wrapped up back in the summer, but it's actually already time for the next meet up for the Three Lions, and every other national side around the globe.

Where in past years, the international break that takes place around October is only two weeks long, this time the England camp will be together for three weeks as they play as many as four Nations League matches - versus World champions Spain, Czechia (x2), and Croatia.

According to a report in the Evening Standard, the very reason for this extra long break has been put down to that close proximity to the summer World Cup, as organisers had player welfare in mind.

As a result, where in the past, we grew used to separate breaks in both September and October, these have been combined into one single mega-break.

Which, although considerable when taken in one go, does mean that there has been only one disruption to the Premier League season so far.

Essentially, FIFA have reconfigured the international match calendar to merge the traditional September and October windows into a single, extended break.

FIFA voted unanimously to make the change in 2023, and this season is the first to see it actually implemented.

Every international break this season:

This season's international breaks are as follows:

1. Sept. 21-Oct. 6 (between Premier League gameweeks 5 and 6)
2. Nov. 9-Nov. 17 (between Premier League gameweeks 10 and 11)
3. March 22-March 30 (between Premier League gameweeks 30 and 31