Premier league fixture list: How is it compiled?

Looking at how the Premier League fixtures are compiled

With the fixture list for the 2015/16 Barclays Premier league season set to be announced in less than an hour’s time, let’s have a look at how the list for all the games in all the leagues is actually compiled.

At the beginning of the year, all the international dates from FIFA and UEFA, the European competition dates, and then the FA Cup dates are taken into account. That leaves just the Premier league and Capital One Cup dates to be decided.

Sequencing methodology is used to break down the season into sets, with the five sets being reversed in the second half of the season. Some of the rules which are taken into account while sequencing are:

• In any five matches, the team should play three home and two away games or vice versa.

• No club starts the season or finishes the season with two home or away games.

• A team will never have more than two home or away games in a row.

• Whenever possible, there will be a home and away game around an FA Cup tie.

• If a team plays a home game on Boxing Day, it will be away on New Year’s Eve.

• Big clubs from the same place (Everton-Liverpool and Manchester City-Manchester United) will not clash with each other on the same date.

• Travel is minimized during Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

• In the month of March, a form is sent to all the clubs asking for three things:

1. Are there any dates they wish not to be at home? (answered in conjunction with local police)

2. Which club would they want to pair with?

3. Whether there are any teams they do not wish to play at home on Boxing Day.

• Each club is then placed in the pairing grid and for every date in the season, the fixture computer decides who plays home and who plays away, and then mix them up randomly to determine the dates of the matches. All the requests cannot be satisfied as there are 2,036 matches across the Premier League and Football League over a nine-month period!

• If there is a problem, the officials may have to start all over again and come up with a new set of fixtures.

• After the fixture list is prepared by the computer, the Premier League, the Football League and Atos representatives review the dates for two days and check if all the demands of the clubs have been met whenever possible.

• The fixtures are also checked by the Association of Chief Police Officers and British Transport Police representatives. If a particular fixture’s date has to be changed, it may require another 40 changes and this is where the computer is very helpful.

• After the fixture list is finalized, it is printed out and sent to all the leagues. It is also sent to the press the night before so that it can be distributed in the morning.

Source: premierleague.com