The Football / Soccer season is one of the longest compared to other popular sports. Although soccer is played around the world, most national associations follow the leagues in Europe format of playing their season from August to May. This allows most soccer players to take much needed breaks in June and July. However with the FIFA World Cup, European Championship, Copa America, Olympics and other tournaments scheduled during this time, soccer always seems to be on TV and the best players are always playing.
The obvious exception is Major League Soccer in North America which usually runs its soccer season from March until November (including the MLS Cup playoffs). This was most likely to avoid competing with the NFL’s season in the United States which runs from September to February.
Up until the 2012/13 season the Russian Premier League ran its season from March to November to avoid playing games during the harsh winter months. This put Russian teams at a disadvantage during European club competitions because they had played most of their season as those competitions were kicking off. They have since aligned their season to the rest of the European leagues while opting for a three month winter break mid-season.
Russian Premier League game during the winter
The prolonged pandemic from 2020 to 2021 has thrown schedules off recently, but here are the start and end dates for some of the ore popular soccer leagues:
[…] In 1968, Penarol of Urugauy conceded only five goals in 18 games on the way to an unbeaten season. […]