Lower league club owners and executives are expected to express misgivings about plans to scrap FA Cup replays in order to accommodate a winter break in the Premier League.

It is understood a winter break is a step closer to being agreed after the FA, Premier League and Football League reached a provisional agreement to play the FA Cup fifth round in midweek from the 2019-20 season. The deal would afford top-flight players the first two weeks of February off in the hope it will improve England’s chances in Euro 2020, should they qualify, and major tournaments in the future.

Darryl Eales, the outgoing chairman of the League One side Oxford United, said it would be disappointing for the competition as a whole and suggested splitting proceeds equally from fifth-round ties would soften the financial blow of scrapping replays for lower-league clubs.

“I think it is a shame from the overall perspective of the FA Cup but, in general, for lower league clubs, reaching the fifth round is a huge prize in itself,” he said. “Perhaps a possible compensatory adjustment could be sharing the prize money equally between the winner and loser.”

Accommodating a winter break would mean breaking the longstanding FA Cup tradition of weekend ties to allow all Premier League clubs and their players to have at least 13 days without a match, with top-flight fixtures split over two weekends accordingly.

The 2020 European Championship will be held in 12 cities across the continent at the end of what is earmarked as the first season with a winter break. The premise behind the idea is that England would have the greatest benefit of home advantage among the participating countries.

England have an advantage in that Wembley has been chosen for seven matches, including the semi-finals and the final. If they get to the final, England could play six out of seven games at Wembley.

The EFL has been taking part in negotiations but the winter break would not apply in the Championship, League One and League Two. The 46-game schedule for each division means there is less flexibility.

The EFL has made it clear it wants the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, its top competition, to continue being played over two legs. “There are no plans to move it from a two-leg semi-final,” Shaun Harvey, the EFL’s chief executive, said.

Talks are centred on scrapping FA Cup fifth-round replays, although it is understood there are concerns replays in earlier rounds could also be abolished.

Paul Tisdale, the manager of League Two Exeter, said abolishing third- and fourth-round replays would be disastrous for lower league clubs. “I see both sides of the fence with fifth round,” he said. “I can see from the top end they think there’s too many games but it would certainly be to the detriment of lower league clubs particularly if replays were scrapped in rounds three and four – that would be a very sad day.

“It really is once every 10 years your club has that and it makes a difference. We played Liverpool in 2016 in a replay and made enough money in that tie to pay for artificial turf facilities for our academy. It allowed us to have the biggest improvement to our facilities in 10 years thanks to one game so it would be really unfortunate if we lost replays completely.”

The final decision on a winter break rests with the FA but it is understood the Premier League is happy with the idea of a winter break, in principle. It would bring England’s top tier in line with other leading leagues across Europe. The Scottish Premiership shuts down for the first three weeks in January, and France’s Ligue 1, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A and Spain’s La Liga also have winter breaks.