Smith feels a winter break would benefit both players and fans

"We should be playing in the best of the weather as most games that are called off have been in January and February," Smith told BBC Sport.

However, SPL secretary, Iain Blair, countered: "We're hoping to see more success for Scottish clubs in Europe and that uses up a lot of midweeks.

"The clubs and fans tell us that they prefer the games to be on the weekend."

The debate follows the postponement of the St Mirren v Rangers game at Love Street on 8 January.

Smith is a firm believer in the idea of a Scottish Premier League shutdown, and feels it should be revived.

"There is a certain degree of positivity regarding a shutdown as a lot of people realise that it would be beneficial after the festive period, and I think most people think a winter break is a good thing.

"It is definitely down to the leagues to decide and I can only think that the reason we don't have one in this country is because of cash-flow.

MY SPORT: DEBATE Is a winter break practical?

"Over the same number of games in better weather surely more fans would turn up to see games," he added.

"There are only two countries in Europe as far as I know that don't have a winter shutdown of some kind and they are Scotland and England, so when you take that into account it's unbelievable.

"Even countries like Greece, Italy and France have a close down in winter and we don't so it's something that we should be looking at."

Blair, meanwhile, while in broad favour of the idea in principle, claims that fitting in a shutdown would prove to be too complex logistically.

"A winter shutdown is something that we constantly review, but in terms of the weather if you can tell me when the bad weather is going to be then that's fantastic.

"We would be looking at it with regard to giving the players a brief recuperation period of maybe three weeks," he explained.

"The difficulty is fitting it into the crowded schedule as it's proved impossible to do over the past few years.

"We are looking at it again and we do honestly review it every season but I do think it would be very difficult to do for next season."

When asked why Scotland does not have a winter break, unlike mainland Europe, he added: "Countries like Austria and Germany tend to have a lot of snow in winter rather than rain, so that is a reason why they have a winter shutdown and we don't."