THE ENGLISH League season will be extended by three weeks next year in the hope of both smoothing England's passage through into the 1998 World Cup finals and pacifying the disgruntled supporters of the sport's elite clubs.

Although the decision was taken.in principle at a meeting of League chairmen on October 10th, it is not scheduled to be moved into the public domain for another two months.

The 1997/98 season will now open on August 2nd - a fortnight earlier than this season. The additional week will be tacked on to the end of a campaign which will close in May 1998, shortly before the game's leading footballing nations assemble in France to contest the World Cup.

The extension means that there will be just six weeks between the end of the current season and the opening of the next.

The last competitive fixture of this season is the World Cup qualifying tie between Belarus and Scotland on June 8th. After the briefest close season in the history of British football, it will be followed on July 25th by the new season's traditional curtain raiser, the meeting at Wembley of the Premier League champions and the FA Cup winners in the Charity Shield.

In an attempt to ensure that England coach Glenn Hoddle is able to fully maximise the potential of his squad, there, are likely to be seven blank Premier League Saturdays next season mostly before Christmas 1997.

"The extension of the season by around three weeks is now a matter for serious discussion, said Liverpool's vice chairman Peter Robinson. There are two main arguments behind this development. One is the extra number of countries now participating in the European competitions and the World Cup.

It means larger groups and more games, both at international and, club level. The second factor behind any move like this is the large influx of foreign players into this country. If was discussed at the last Premier League meeting and it was accepted that, really, people do want weekend football.