Four possible solutions to the problem:

1) Move Southampton v Leicester to the Friday night. Both play on the previous Saturday, so this would allow FA Cup replays to be played on the Tuesday night. This could potentially upset the BBC/BT, but it's very unlikely that there would be a problem. Whether this would count as a Friday night game is another matter, Sky might like to avoid that.

2) Move Southampton v Leicester to Sunday 12:00. This allows Southampton to play on the Wednesday. Hull v Man Utd moves to the Thursday night which is fine as these two teams meet the following Wednesday in the League. Any Fourth Round FA Cup ties featuring these two teams would have to be played on the Sunday, but that would be fine.

3) Move Southampton v Leicester to Saturday 12:30 and move Liverpool v Swansea to Sunday 12:00. This really shouldn't happen as it involves messing around two other teams.

4) Sky drop Southampton v Leicester altogether and it reverts to Saturday 15:00. This is Leicester's only game in Package E so I think Sky would only drop this game if they had another Leicester game lined up for Friday/Monday Night Football.

Personally Option 2 looks best to me, but I really wouldn't be surprised if they go for Option 3.

You don't think your over reacting a little bit?

Oh come on, wolvesdavid, you know must know that it's situations like this that people on here live for! What do you think will happen?

re option3
liverpool play southampton !
so they cant do sunday.

also fa cup sunday is out for liverpool as they play tues on bt

Exactly it's only a bit of fun speculation nothing more

Good spot Judio, though I suppose they could swap Southampton v Leicester with Man City v Spurs (i.e. move Man City v Spurs to Sunday 12:00). I think Option 2 looks the most sensible thing to do. If two of the teams in the League Cup Semi Final were both playing on the Sunday, then a Sunday-Tuesday schedule wouldn't be too unfair, but that isn't the case with United and Liverpool both playing Saturday.

Moving forwards (and assuming they beat Hull)

Manchester Derby on Sky Wed March 1st ??

(With the usual subject to FA Cup R5 replays attached )

This would all be easier if the Football League went to a single match for the Semi Final

League cup only has 1 round (semi) where teams play twice.

FA Cup has 3 rounds (3, 4, 5) where teams could play twice, was 4 until this season.

So if we need to cut down matches it's the FA cup that should be looked at before messing with the League cup.

As a result of our EFL Cup result, Southampton’s Premier League fixture against Leicester City will now move to Sunday, January 22, with kick-off at 12pm.
As a result, our game against Burnley will now be played as follows:

Arsenal v Burnley
Sunday, January 22, 2017
Kick-off: 2.15pm (previously 1.30pm)
Live on: Sky Sports

Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-arc...dkU7fmIRwrB.99

I think that Judio will react by saying that we should only have one legged semi-finals.

This will be followed up, at some point, by someone saying we should get rid of all FA Cup replays.

Because it has already being stated, that Southampton v Leicester will be moved to Sunday 12:00pm, I would have thought that it would indeed be moved to that point.

And that's now confirmed on the Premier League site:

https://www.premierleague.com/fixtures

So what do you think they'll do with the League Cup semi finals?

I have to state the fixture congestion is really caused by FIFA having international breaks every single month, in September , October, and November and March. Group these together to have fewer international breaks.

The thing they should do is move Hull City v Manchester United to the Thursday.

Whether they do that, or force one team to play Sunday-Tuesday remains to be seen.

Or cut down on the number of European club games and play Internationals on a Wednesday evening, so you don't have to have a break at all.

It is lucky not many Premier League fixtures get postponed these days

Or play both semi finals on the same night
Sky have more than one channel

And I am sure if someone wants to see Liverpool play Southampton
They will not mind missing Man United v Hull

And Vice Versa

They would still want a break of 5 days before the internationals, which does leave the previous weekend out.

Here are my predictions for Weeks 24 to 26:

Week 24

Friday 20:00 - Chelsea v Arsenal - E3

Saturday 12:30 - Tottenham v Middlesbrough - A2
Saturday 17:30 - Watford v Burnley - B5

Sunday 13:30 - Hull v Liverpool - C4
Sunday 16:00 - Leicester v Man Utd - D1


Week 25

Saturday 12:30 - Stoke v Crystal Palace - A5
Saturday 17:30 - Liverpool v Tottenham - B1

Sunday 13:30 - Swansea v Leicester - C2
Sunday 16:00 - Burnley v Chelsea - G3

Monday 20:00 - Bournemouth v Man City - E4


Week 26

Saturday 12:30 - Everton v Sunderland - A2
Saturday 17:30 - Crystal Palace v Stoke - B5

Sunday 12:00 - Leicester v Liverpool - D1
Sunday 12:00 - Southampton v Arsenal - E3
Sunday 14:15 - Man City v Man Utd - C4


Notes:

Bournemouth v Man City moves to Sunday 12:00 should Man City be playing that midweek in the Champions League.

As with last season, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Leicester v Liverpool and Southampton v Arsenal scheduled for the same slot given that one of these games will be postponed.

Well, not if the single match was that particular week, it wouldn't be. Presumably the remaining midweek would be used for something else as well, presumably a Premier League fixture list where the same problems would apply.

I doubt there's any appetite for changing the League Cup semi-finals to a single match from Sky, either. January is a weak month for them anyway, what with two rounds of the FA Cup and the midweek round on BT, and the League Cup provides one of the few opportunities for live primetime football with the big teams. Sky are getting two Liverpool and two Man U matches in primetime, a brilliant result for them.


Sorry to sound like a dick here but they're clearly not "every single month" given there isn't one now for nearly four months.

Still does not alter the point I made, that international football is the cause of fixture problems.

I'd forgotten that Sky still have to (I think) pass second pick to BT once more this season. They might choose to do that in Week 25 as Sky probably wouldn't want to pick Arsenal v Hull unless they need to use it to fill a Hull quota. BT will want to get an Arsenal game with their last Package F game so I think there's a good chance they'll go for that even if they don't actually get given second pick in Week 25. This is likely to be dependent upon Arsenal not playing on the following Tuesday in the Champions League as I think Sky will want to use the Saturday 12:30 slot.

Grouping them together wouldn't actually reduce the time taken out of the league schedule in the slightest. In fact it could even take more game days out.

The cause of fixture problems is too many games, full stop. Blaming any particular competition or international games in isolation is just ridiculous. With the change from straight knockout in the Champions League, for example, there was every opportunity to take participants or even the entire Premier League out of the League Cup, for example, or exempt them from the 3rd rd of the FA Cup. Instead the clubs have decided simply to go on piling up games. That's something they now have to live with.