At 0900 on Wednesday June 18th the fixtures for the 33rd Premier League season will be released, well sort of! What we will get on Wednesday is a rough order of play with the only cast iron certainty being that the fixtures listed for Sunday May 24th 2026 will actually happen, all together, on that day and all kicking off at the same time, probably at 1600.
For many years I worked for the company that was the exclusive fixtures distribution partner of Football Data Co and as such I am fully aware of the processes that DataCo go through to produce this list. It was always a pretty long laborious process with input from amongst others FIFA, UEFA, the FA and local police forces. Clubs were paired together to prevent teams located within close proximity to each other playing at the same time on the same day and finally once all the parameters have been set the initial fixture list was ‘randomly’ generated. How random this process is now has been questioned many times and the continued lack of any blockbuster fixtures on either the first or last day of the season seems to indicate that there are a few more subtleties involved. Then, of course the television companies get involved. The new broadcast deal starting this coming season will see every fixture not played at 1500 on a Saturday shown live on one or other of the Premier League’s broadcast partners leaving only 20% of all EPL fixtures to be played at the traditional kick off time.
Now, old as I am (and I am of quite a vintage), I do not hark back to the supposed halcyon pre-Premier League days when clubs weren’t businesses – yes, they were, just local or regional ones rather than global ones – and every team consisted of players born within a cuckoo’s spit of the ground, which they hadn’t done for a very long time, if ever. I don’t miss standing on appallingly dangerous terraces unable to be move and being in imminent danger from any number of potential threats. I don’t miss the lack of any live television coverage of League matches as with very few exceptions the only games broadcast live in the 1970s and 1980s were the FA Cup Final, The European Cup Final and England vs Scotland in the Home Internationals, all of which were in May.
However there is one thing that I do miss and that is the opening day of the season; it was magical! You’d gone three long months subjected to test cricket, Wimbledon, the Open etc. and now football was back. At three o’clock on a Saturday in mid-August life normal life resumed, you’d see people that you hadn’t seen for three months and drink outside pubs that you hadn’t set foot in during the dreadful interregnum . The days running up to the day itself were full of anticipation and the excitement on the preceding Friday night was more than I experienced on every childhood Christmas Eve. But now opening day is opening weekend and as of three seasons ago, doesn’t even start on the Saturday. Games on Friday evening, Saturday lunchtime, teatime & evening, Sunday at 1400 and 1630 and finally the dreaded and dreadful Monday Night Football leave only two or three to be played at the traditional time on the traditional day.
I don’t think that I am alone here in thinking that a return to a full schedule opening day would be one significant step in giving the game back to the fans. The only thing stopping it happening is the broadcasters and the associated use by the Premier League and Football League of UEFA’s Article 48 “black out rule”. You can read the whole thing here if you really want:
[https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0277-159787c43c1a-3cf5b2cbb931-1000/regulations\_governing\_implementation\_of\_article\_48.pdf](https://editorial.uefa.com/resources/0277-159787c43c1a-3cf5b2cbb931-1000/regulations_governing_implementation_of_article_48.pdf)
But, to spare you that pain, in short it is used by the Leagues to block live transmissions at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. Many informed observers will tell you that this is an insurmountable hurdle, but it really isn’t. There are three obvious solutions:
1. The EPL tells its broadcasters that it is happening and that they are not including opening day fixtures in the ‘For Sale’ packages offered to the likes of Sky, TNT and Amazon – unlikely as the current deal has already used up the last of the League’s bargaining chips.
2. The EPL and the EFL agree not to enforce Article 48 on the opening day – This is the best option in my opinion given that the rule is not mandated by UEFA and all member countries can adopt it as these please.
3. The EPL makes opening day mirror the final day of the season and play all the matches at 1600 on the Sunday (August 17th in the case of the coming season) – This doesn’t quite solve the issue, but it is a very good compromise that neither the broadcasters nor the Football League can have any real objections to.
The new UK broadcast deal only starts in August, so option one is off the table for at least three years. However the new deal has once again filled the Premier League’s coffers and only a small amount of this would need to be added to the Football League’s share of the pot (and an assurance that this wasn’t the start of a slippery slope) to get them acquiesce. Failing that, then there is absolutely no reason that option three could not be implemented as early as the start of the 2026/27 season – in theory the EPL could actually shock us all and announce it for this season, but they are not known for their leftfield, curved balls.
So Mr Masters (@richardmasters) if you are reading this then please consider it. Image coming to watch Villa at the Emirates at 3 o’clock on the opening day of a season, it would be fantastic. I remember that you were responsible for the successful rebranding of the Football League and this would be a real opportunity to leave an indelible mark on its younger but more powerful brother.
Image supplied by Reuters