An SPL board meeting has decided there would be no winter break in 2009-10.

The SPL claim the early finish to the campaign dictated by the 2010 World Cup finals would make a mid-season shutdown impossible.

The SPL said in a statement: "Other details of fixture dates will be announced in due course. But season 2009-10 will not include a winter break, given the constraints presented by the early finish to the season required by FIFA ahead of the World Cup Finals in South Africa.

"The possibility of re-introducing the winter break for season 2010-11 is being examined."