The new Emirates FA Cup deal could have an impact on the potential implementation of a winter break, according to reports.

In the last week Emirates announced that the airline planned to renew their sponsorship deal with the cup competition until 2021, in a move reportedly worth £9m-a-year.

At the time, there was a bit of an outcry from fans, but that was mainly focused on the fact that Arsenal are also sponsored by Emirates, leading to conspiracy theories from rival supporters that this is the only reason the Gunners have won the competition on three out of the last four occasions.

It couldn’t have anything to do with the fact that Arsenal were the best team on each occasion, and knocked out Manchester City, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Everton, Southampton and Spurs on the way to those cup successes.

However, now fans may have a legitimate reason to be upset, as it seems that the new sponsorship deal may come at the expense of the potential new winter break.

Other European countries already have a winter break, and have seen a lot more success in Europe, causing critics of the English system to ask why the Premier League doesn’t do that same.

The Premier League was involved in discussions with the FA over the clustered calendar, according to the Daily Mail, and saw the concept of a winter break as an opportunity to get the FA to agree to cut back on their competition.

If the Premier League could argue that getting rid of cup replays, moving some cup matches to mid-week and bringing in a winter break would help the top English clubs perform better in Europe, then the FA may be more likely to agree to these terms.

But with a new sponsorship deal in place for the next few years, the FA probably won’t want to do anything to anger Emirates, which reducing the number of games and reducing viewership by moving to midweek would probably do.