Absolutely spot on.
Id have 3 international windows a year. October, March, June

Just how would it do that?

38 Premier League games
Maximum of 9 FA Cup games
Maximum of 6 League Cup games
1 Community Shield game
1 UEFA Super Cup game
2 World Club Championship games
Maximum of 17 Champions League/Europa League games
8 internationals during the season

Total = 82 games per season.

52 weeks in a year.

If you played two games per week, the season would be 41 weeks, leaving an 11 week close season.

It does not seem to me that its simply because there are too many fixtures in total but that they are badly organised.

Barring someone winning the FA Cup, Champions League and getting relegated, it seems to me that actually there is plenty of time in a season to get games completed, but that it is badly organised.

Or you could cut back the Champions League to actual, you know, Champions of their Leagues, and run it and the Europa League on a knockout basis. Instead of requiring 6 games to knock out half the games, it only takes two.


Only need to cut it down to 4 days if everyone plays Saturday.

Its going to be chaos in 2021 and 2022 when we have to try and organise a World Cup in mid season

EFL have listened to wovesdavid
Now confirmed as he suggested

Week 1
Tues 10th Man United
Weds 11th Liverpool

Week 2
Weds 25th Liverpool
Thurs 26th Man United

BBC will not now be able to pick either of their 2 biggest choices for the Fri night FA cup Round 4 match

Fridays are not the Beeb's only slot, and they don't have a Friday match in every round. They'll manage.

They are going to have severe restrictions in Round 4.

Liverpool v Chelsea on Tue 31st

Man U now the Thursday before

The only severe restriction would be if any combination of Man Utd or Hull v Liverpool or Chelsea came out. Otherwise, it should be manageable.

Not if as suggested Sky have a Friday night game on Feb 3rd

Then that would mean more sides having to play on Tues 31st

Which means they could not play Sunday in the Cup

They could go Monday night for Week 24 - but I'm not sure Sky would want to have the possibility of shifting a game like Chelsea v Arsenal to Sunday 12:00.

Ultimately it comes down to where does the power lie. In the past games scheduled for the Tuesday following the FA Cup Fourth Round have been moved to the Wednesday to allow a Sunday game. This happened in 2012 when Bolton v Arsenal was moved to the Wednesday to accommodate Arsenal v Aston Villa on the Sunday.

Whether they'd move a game scheduled for TV (like Liverpool v Chelsea) is another matter. Presumably it would require a swap with West Ham v Man City (i.e. they couldn't play on the Sunday in the Cup), or alternatively a game could shift to the Thursday, ruling out the Friday and Saturday of Week 24.

However, if Man Utd or Hull draw a team scheduled to play on the following Tuesday, then the midweek league game will have to move to avoid a team having to play Thursday-Saturday or Sunday-Tuesday.

They could make everyones lives easier by drawing out Hull v Man United in Round Four

Where has it been suggested that Sky are having a Friday Night Football on Friday 3rd February? (Outside of the post by TLG86 on this thread.)

Hull and Manchester United could make things even easier by getting knocked out in the 3rd round.

It has been suggested by TLG86 as you have spotted

Revolutionary I know, but maybe people could stop wetting their knickers about things that might not happen in a competition where the draw hasn't been made for the previous round yet?

Good effort, I agree mostly. I think it is a coin flip whether Sky pass Chelsea V Arsenal as if BT pick it then they are maxed out on Chelsea and Arsenal, and it would be up against 6 Nations opener featuring England.

If they do, then Sky presumably pick Liverpool V Spurs. It is conceivable that BT pass 4th Feb back to Sky or use first pick on Leicester V Man Utd.

I think there are allowances for packages and times over EFL Cup Final weekend. I suspect that Man Utd V Man City may be scheduled for 12pm, and the other two at 2.15- with strong likelihood of Man Utd being postponed.

I think 2 till 4.30 is too long a gap with no football, though Sky may place a very attractive EFL game at 2pm, with Southampton or Liverpool games at noon

The EFL Cup Final will kick off at 1630
SUBJECT TO POLICE telling them to kick off earlier

In other words if it is Man United v Liverpool it may be a 1415 !!!

That's a good point! I'd overlooked that possibility. With that in mind, assuming these are the games picked by Sky, I think they will go with Leicester v Liverpool OR Southampton v Arsenal at 12:00 and Man City v Man Utd at 14:15 rather than the other way round as suggested by loyalsince.

I find this a bit hard to believe, to be honest. I'm assuming this is just a guess?

Wembley is a bloody big stadium which is easy to segregate and if they can play England vs Scotland there at 7.45 on a Friday night I don't know why they couldn't play Man U vs Liverpool at 4.30. It's supposed to be the national stadium, they host all kinds of events there with plenty of security.

The problem with holding Liverpool vs Man U in the league is that you get Man U fans hanging around Liverpool all day, and vice versa. Not the case here. Also it's a Cup Final with a much bigger attendance and also higher ticket prices, so you won't get idiots hanging around just wanting to cause trouble. You might struggle a bit given that all the trains will arrive at the same station, but that would happen if it was played at 9am. Next to no chance they'll reschedule it.

It is not a guess

TheEFL Press release today re February TV games
says 430 subject to Police Intelligence asking for a different time

Sky Sports will broadcast exclusive live coverage of the match, which is scheduled to kick-off at 4.30pm, although this time is subject to change based on police intelligence.

No in this case, BOTH sets of supporters are hanging around all day (and many from the night before).

I speak from experience...

And the majority travelling down from the same direction, using the same motorway service stations etc. This was the main issue when the all-Manchester FA Cup Semi was on a few years back, there was more trouble at meeting points on the journey down than anywhere else.