No mither

I'm amazed that anyone even gave the slightest credence to this leaked list given how many times other lists have been leaked before previous fixture announcements and how every single one has proven to be fabricated nonsense.

Obviously it's been proven to be fake but with regards that comment, I see no reason why football the day before rugby shouldn't be possible. Many times in the past with Huddersfield Town/Huddersfield Giants, there's been football on the Saturday and rugby on the Sunday or rugby on the Friday and football on the Saturday, so it's certainly doable.

Thanks! Like I said - I was originally not going to post it, as I knew it was 99% fake, but figured someone on here would deconstruct it far more diligently than I could. Plus...whats not to like with a few hours of forum discussion!

I do now wonder who on earth has the time to put something like that together....

I reckon it was wolvesdavid having a laugh at our expense!

nah - there would have been a notice on the bottom saying that all TV fixtures would be decided six years in advance for the benefit of travelling supporters.

Although it is no doubt a fake I imagine the PL would release a statement asking people to wait till 15th even if it was genuine?

Agreed. If the leak was genuine then I suspect the fixtures would be being re-compiled as we speak.

Was wondering how long it would take for this years big 'leak' to be released. They've never turned out to be the real thing and there's zero reason to believe they're real this time either.

They're not finalised until shortly before the 'deadline' and they're not released to the media until the night before the scheduled release date - under strict embargo until 9am.

Every year, without fail, people always let their mind believe they're genuine. I'm very happy to be proved wrong but I'm not even bothering to read them.

I think someone broke the embargo by an hour last season. I suspect they've been struck off the pre-release list this season!

I've not seen concrete proof of the Club wanting two away games at the end but some Spurs fans have apparently seen the evidence. It passed me by, have to say.

Ok curiosity got the better of me... I had a look!

Just a few glaring reasons it's fake from the front page alone:

It's been created using a basic Microsoft Word template... something the Premier League and their branding / graphic department simply wouldn't do

The bottom of the front page states that they're not to be released until after 10:00am - we know that they're released at 9:00am

It refers to the fact it's been created after consultation with 'Premier League Members'; they're officially referred to as 'Premier League Member Clubs'

I'm sure I could go on..!

Two other reasons that list is BS?

1 - The Premier League refers to one of their members as "AFC Bournemouth", and would thus list their fixtures before Arsenal's.
2 - The Bournemouth Air Festival happens at the same time as the second weekend. Even when they were in League 1, Dorset Police never allowed an AFCB home game on the same weekend.

Couple more good points, particularly the AFC Bournemouth note in which they do refer to them by the A(FC) instead of the B(ournemouth)... Good spot!

Point two I have no reason to doubt you on. Same methodology Liverpool/Everton can't play at home the same day as the Grand National etc etc.

And if you look on the premier league website it states that the fixtures for 2016/2017 would be released at 0900 NOT 1000 on the 15th june.

Maybe we should all gang together and produce next season's leak - I daresay we'd do the best job yet!

The PL do not admit how much control Sky have over the fixtures
but here is their press release

http://www.premierleague.com/en-gb/n...-compiled.html

That same piece has been rehashed pretty much every season. The wording is the same every year.

As is the extremely tired refrain about Sky's "influence"

I don’t think Sky have any influence at all over the fixtures.

I think the only thing missing from the list was that the final day fixtures are designed to be ‘non-controversial.’

I do think it is slightly pointless to have a debate over the fake fixture list, but in literally 10-15 mins I flew through the list picking out first picks. I guessed CL weeks and roughly tried to factor in the fact Sky need to be strong in Jan and Feb. This was not scientific. I made no attempt to out quota a team or do anything clever.

Anyway I got:

Set first picks (5): 17,18,20,23,31
Sky D (18)- 3,5,7,11,12,14,15,16,21,24,26,29,30,32,35,36,37,38
BT B (9)- 1,4,6,8,10,19,27,33,34
Sky A (6)- 2,9,13,22,25,28

Without Newcastle and Villa, you do get 6 pretty poor weekends. In practice I suspect BT may take week 2 (Mourinho first two would be marketing campaign) but emphasis on rough guide.

From the BT 9, I think Sky only really sorry to lose Liverpool V Arsenal and Man City V Chelsea. I think Sky would get the latter back by out quota.

I accept TLG86 probably right- bit better run in (weeks 33 and 34 to BT) and I passed opening day.

Overall Id say similar to last year, the 'fluke,' of the fixtures will determine whether BT have similar quality or slightly worse to last year (unless the fluke produces Man Utd V Man City/ Liverpool V Man Utd and Man Utd V Liverpool on midweeks)

That is my sad 20 mins of the day spent, see you all on Wed for real fixtures

I know I've mentioned this a few times, but I think it is very convenient that there have been big head to heads featuring teams already qualified for the Champions League/Europa League in Week 2/3 of the season:

2013-14: Man Utd v Chelsea
2014-15: Man City v Liverpool
2015-16: Arsenal v Liverpool

These fixtures were very convenient for Sky as they were able to show them on Monday Night. As we know, getting Champions League teams into the Monday Night slot is only possible at certain times of the season.

So when the fixtures are released on Wednesday, look out for a big match up in Week 2 featuring two of Leicester, Arsenal, Spurs and Man Utd. Of course, it does require Sky to control third picks and for Sky to be willing to use a first pick. Would they consider Arsenal v Leicester (as was in the hoax) sufficient for a first pick just to ensure they get that game on the Monday Night? Of course, they may think BT would return first pick anyway so in that sense it's a different dynamic this season.

Usually when the fixtures come out I and several others have a bit of fun trying to see which first picks will go where. This season it's going to be so much harder with BT having the ability to pass back some Sky passes.

It's unfortunate that we never actually get a complete sense of how this all works. So much money is spent, these packs are so delicately structured and yet we never really know what the procedure is.

On a less technical point, 1730 will be so much better for BT next season. 1245 is a poor kick off time for so many reasons (families out and about, fans going off to their own games, a bit early for some to go the pub etc) and 1730 will help that quite a lot.

The atmosphere at games is also better later in the afternoon than the 1245 slot, especially in the Winter months under the floodlights, so alot of games will feel more interesting and engaging to the neutral viewer than they maybe have done previously. And of course, big games in that slot will feel alot bigger than they have done in the early slot IMO.

I also think BT's games will feel more important in the scheme of things as the final game of the day as opposed to the first. This should result in improved ratings and a bit more of a bounce for BT.

I think predicting first picks will be about the same as the last three years. Remember 2014-15 when it wasn't until the end of the season that it became apparent that BT chose Burnley v Man Utd over Spurs v Liverpool*?

Calling the second, third, fourth and fifth picks, however, will be a lot harder this season. I envisage a lot of debate about what BT has left prior to the April and May picks.

*At least, I think that's what happened!

I don't mean it'll be difficult working out which games will be the first picks, but rather which ones BT will get if they are able to defer a few back to Sky.

Admittedly I've not had time to do a full season simulation with the new packages ahead of Wednesday's fixture release, but I have had a quick glance over the new structure.

What is the majority view among the regulars with regards the pick priority? Previously we tended to go by which package had most of a pick. For example, Package D had 20 first picks (more than any other) so it held priority for first picks.

If we work with the same formula with the new packages I believe this is how it would pan out (for weekends):

First picks:
Package D (Sky) > Package B (BT) > Package A (Sky)

Second picks:
Package C (Sky) > Package A (Sky) > Package F (BT)

Third picks:
Package E (Sky) > Package B (BT) > Package F (BT) = Package G (Sky)

Fourth picks:
Package E (Sky) > Package D (Sky) > Package C (Sky)

Fifth picks:
Package A (Sky) > Package B (BT) = Package C (Sky) > Package E (Sky)

Now this is clearly flawed, not least because there are a couple of cases of multiple packages having the same number of games in a tier of picks, thus making it impossible to determine which has priority (although there was a similar dilemma in the previous structure when it came to fifth picks in Packages B and E, but Sky held both packages so it wasn't a problem).

But more significantly, this set-up doesn't give BT the priority for any tier of pick. That would be hugely significant as Sky would be able to completely dictate which weeks BT would have a game in certain timeslots, and also the quality of said game.

My opinion is that Package E does not have priority over both third AND fourth picks. It would be illogical for the PL to give such weight to one package, and the likelihood is that Package B actually holds priority on third picks, thus giving it greater value than it otherwise would. This obviously hands BT some minor clout.

Overall the structure is in some ways simpler. The timeslots in particular are nice and tidy. The five main packages are streamlined with only one (or two) slots per package. The midweek and BH rounds have neatly been separated into two separate packages, thus ensuring less chance of a big game having to be passed due to quotas. Raising the max quota in Package F to three is also a smart move.

But there are underlying issues, not least with the pick priority problems outlined above. And I think there might be one or two other complications as well, when you look deeper at game selection on a week-by-week basis.

It should be interesting, and as always the first port of call on Wednesday will be the midweek and BH rounds. With those now split between Sky and BT we'll get an immediate picture of the lie of the land for both broadcasters, particularly BT whose highest rating games have often been non-weekend games. Whatever comes up, we've got a hell of a job ahead breaking it down round by round!