The easy answer is that football is a winter sport, so it's played with seasons starting in early autumn and ending in late spring, with a summer break. But as it's played in both hemi-spheres theres always pro-footballing taking place somewhere.
The complicated answer is that theres no general rule, each country has it's own set up, what follows are some generalisations:
In Europe, the football season generally lasts from September/August to May/June ...the EPL is August - May.
This sometimes excludes a short mid-season winter break during December/January.
During the summer break, however, a major international tournament takes place every other year (Either the world cup, or European cup).
This isn't true for certain countries where it's impractical to play during the Winter(Scandanavia for example)
The US's MLS season is an exception to playing through the winter also, as it is set up to compete with Baseball, and mostly mirrors that season - running from April to September.
African and South American seasons can become even more complex
Some African nations have a March to November season, others have a revese September to March season. Again it depends on practical matters, such as climate (avoiding playing in the hottest months).
South American football seasons are imposibly complex to describe accurately. Apart from Chile there are two 'seasons' per calender year, generally the two seasons are entirely unrelated competitions. Again the seasons are usually arranged to avoid the summer months. That tends to be the limit of the similarities.
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