EWOOD chief Robert Coar today warned that English clubs were likely to be playing summer football sooner rather than later - and whether they liked it or not.

The Blackburn Rovers chairman believes the issue will eventually be forced by UEFA.

And he also thinks that entry to the Intertoto Cup could become the "norm", rather than last summer's exception.

Rovers, of course, could find themselves one of the clubs nominated for the Intertoto next summer through their final position in the Premiership.

Though the Premier League, as a body, has yet to discuss whether they intend to take part in 1996.

But English football's negative attitude last summer to a competition scathingly labelled the "InterTwoBob Cup" by one national newspaper has already cost us a UEFA Cup place for 1996-97.

Major changes could be in prospect on the domestic scene and Mr Coar said: "Not necessarily next year but in future years I believe we will be landed with some summer football and a mid-season break. "I can see it coming. In most cases we are the ones who are out of step with everyone else in Europe.

"Our problem in this country would be over when you would take the break."

Traditionally, football has been a winter game but it has increasingly crept into the summer months, even at domestic level with the play-offs extending the season until the end of May.

Not many people would be likely to welcome a further intrusion, vividly illustrated last summer when three clubs, Tottenham, Wimbledon and Sheffield Wednesday had to be persuaded to enter the Intertoto. following the Premier League's earlier agreement with UEFA. In some cases, teams of juniors and borrowed players were fielded and all three staged "home" games on someone else's ground.

It was that attitude which prompted UEFA to reduce our UEFA Cup allocation from four to three for next season.

But he added: "Summer football? Yes, in some shape or another, I think it is coming.

"I believe UEFA will take the view that they want clubs to be available to enter ALL the competitions and not be selective."

And, if that is the case, English football will be left with little choice than to go along with the rulers of Europe.

As expected, Ian Pearce faces an operation to cure the chipped bone in his ankle and that will leave him on the long-term casualty list.

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