The 2026/27 Premier League schedule explained: Fixture release, key dates and changes to the calendar
While the World Cup will inevitably dominate the summer for most football fans, it won’t be long before attention turns to a brand new Premier League season – and the build-up begins with the release of the fixture list for the 2026/27 campaign.
Below, we’ve explained when the new schedule will be unveiled, what they key dates are, and what changes have been made to the calendar as Arsenal prepare to begin their first title defence in over two decades.
When are the 2026/27 Premier League fixtures released – and what are the key dates?
The full list of fixtures for the forthcoming Premier League season will be unveiled all at the same time on Friday 19 June, at 10:00 BST, with every team from champions Arsenal to play-off winners Hull City learning their schedule at the same time.
That date comes four days after the start of the summer transfer window (which runs from 15 June to 1 September inclusive) and a little more than a week after the opening match of the 2026 World Cup – Scotland play Morocco on the same day in Group C.
While all 380 top flight matches will be revealed, the exact dates of the matches won’t be known until broadcasters Sky Sports and TNT Sports make their picks. Instead, matches will be assigned to a specific weekend or round of midweek fixtures in advance, with games being moved to Friday, Sunday or Monday as broadcasters make their decisions.
That means that while we expect the first match of the 2026/27 season to be on a Friday evening, as has regularly been the case in recent years, we won’t know which match it is when the schedule is revealed.
When does the 2026/27 season start and end – and what’s different this year?
The new Premier League season will get underway on the weekend of 22 August, with the last round of matches due to take place on 30 May 2027, with all 10 games kicking off simultaneously on the final day.
The start and dates are both a week later than usual to allow players extra time to rest and recover after the World Cup, the final of which takes place on 19 July, with the entire schedule of 33 rounds of weekend and five rounds of midweek fixtures pushed back to allow for some much-needed respite.
Another key difference this season is that we can expect a much wider slate of games on Boxing Day. In the 2025/26 season, there was just one game on what is traditionally one of the busiest days of the football calendar, but with Boxing Day set to fall on a Saturday this year, fans can expect to watch rather more football over their leftover sandwiches.
The final major change is that there will no longer be two separate international breaks in September and October – instead, changes to FIFA’s schedule means that both sets of matches will be merged into a single, much longer international window which starts in late September, creating a gap of three weeks between domestic games.
Continue Reading