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Using game-level data, this study examines what impact the mid-season winter break in football fixtures has on technical performance across European football leagues. Thirty-eight technical measures pertaining to the actions of passing and shooting are assessed for 3494 team match observations from the German Bundesliga, Spanish La Liga, French Ligue 1 and English Premier League across 5 seasons from 2013/14 to 2017/18. Kruskal–Wallis tests were conducted to investigate the differences between three groups: PREPRE (4–6 fixtures prior to the break); PRE (1–3 fixtures prior to the break); and POST (1–3 fixtures after the break). Shooting performance declined significantly post winter break in the German Bundesliga (13/21 metrics) which had an average break of 32 days. Passing performance deteriorated significantly in the French Ligue 1 (4/17 metrics) which had an average break of 19 days. The …