Earlier this year Moldova made the same decision to switch to a summer schedule from 2018 onwards. The result of this is a concise transitional campaign crammed into the calendar before the year is out, similar to what Georgia did last year.
Georgia's Umaglesi liga was broken into two groups of seven teams. The objective for the new summer campaign was to have a rebranded league of ten teams. The format of the league saw a surprise league win for Samtredia for the first time while traditional powers Dinamo Tbilisi and the recently impressive Dila Gori missed out on Europe completely. Only Torpedo Kutaisi of the traditional powers qualified. The league concluded with play-offs and everything was done and dusted by mid December with the new rebranded Erovnuli liga beginning on March 4th.
The transitional campaign gave Samtredia a unique opportunity to gain a league title and champions league qualification.
The decision to switch calendars is obvious and that's to improve European results. Georgia and Moldova enter sides in early qualifying rounds of European competition and clubs head into these games out of season lacking match fitness. From Moldova only Sheriff Tiraspol has ever reached the group stage of either the Champions league or Europa league while for Georgia only Dinamo Tbilisi have made the group stage once which was the UEFA cup.
For Moldova this year the league campaign ended on May 30th with the so called gold match to decide the league title which was won by Sheriff Tiraspol who then face Kukësi in the champions league on July 12th. For the Europa league entrants the league season ended on May 21st with the first European games played on June 29th.
Georgia this year were without their traditional power of Dinamo Tbilisi and it may come as no shock in Georgian football circles that they mustered a very bleak showing with all their sides falling at the first hurdle in both competitions. For Georgia, next year represents the first test of whether the switch was worthwhile results wise.
Georgia and Moldova's decisions to switch to a summer calendar has raised a serious question for the majority of lower ranked leagues in UEFA. Would switching calendars help teams in Europe?. For the majority of leagues in the lower half of the UEFA country coefficient ranking these European qualifiers are massive. The revenue on offer just for taking part and getting through a few rounds is a game changer. Being best prepared for these qualifiers in the way of match fitness is only done with competitive football.
A case study for this is Ireland where in 2002 the decision was made to go to a summer schedule with the aim of improving European results the major factor behind it. Since 2003 it is safe to assume that the switch has helped in that department with two clubs reaching the group stages of the Europa league and Shelbourne coming close to a berth in the champions league group stage in 2004. However that isn't to say it's guaranteed to improve results, Ireland still produced a couple of poor years with 2013-14 the standout where it scored the lowest collective coefficient points out of all the leagues.
A lot of European leagues operate lengthy winter breaks with some ranging from two weeks to three months. Both Georgia and Moldova operated lengthy winter breaks when in the winter schedule and so the switch in calendar doesn't really change much in that record. The lengthy winter breaks are enforced due to harsh winters Eastern Europe experiences further strengthening the appeal of summer football.
It is a trend that will be interest to follow if other leagues decide that playing through the summer might benefit continental performance.
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