The most radical overhaul of English football for a generation was dead in the water on Tuesday after talks aimed at increasing the number of professional clubs to 100 collapsed.

The English Football League (EFL) announced it had shelved the so-called ‘Whole Game Solution’ – which also would have led to a winter break in the Premier League – after accusing the Football Association of no longer being willing to move FA Cup ties to midweek.

The FA signed overseas broadcast rights deals for its flagship cup competition worth $1 billion (£820 million) last month, five months after beginning talks with the EFL and Premier League about changing the former’s structure from three 24-team divisions to four 20-side ones.

The revamp would have created more midweek days in a congested calendar and space for a winter break but would also have required either the FA or the leagues to surrender weekend fixtures for less lucrative kick-off times.

The FA was prepared to give up cup replays, demonstrated by the scrapping of them for the quarter-final – but refused to budge over weekends following its new television deal.

In an e-mail to EFL chief executive Shaun Harvey last week, FA counterpart Martin Glenn wrote: “Given the massive economic value that Saturday FA Cup fixtures have internationally and the intangible value inherent in a cup competition played at the weekend, I don’t see sufficient advantage to the FA in the current WGS proposal.”