Online Reporter
There is set to be only ONE Premier League fixture on Boxing Day, Daily Mail Sport understands.
In an apparent break from tradition – which may well trigger outrage – calendar pressures triggered by UEFA competition expansion and the FA Cup switching exclusively to weekends appear to have forced the top flight’s hand.
The Premier League is contractually obliged to deliver 33 weekends to broadcasters and needs to deliver on its promise.
As such, while no final decision has been made, Boxing Day is likely to be treated like any other Friday during the season in that only one match is screened.
Further talks are due, but those with knowledge of the matter believe change is unlikely. There is also currently no decision on which fixture will be selected for festive viewing, should there subsequently be only a sole offering.
The Premier League did say an announcement for televised matches in December and January was due on October 15 but it remains elusive. It is an entirely different story in the EFL, where there will be a full calendar of fixtures on Boxing Day across the Championship and Leagues One and Two. It is also the same situation in the National League.
The first Boxing Day match was played in 1888. Indeed, until 1965, games were also played on Christmas Day in England.
The last Boxing Day on which fewer than three English top-flight football matches were played was 1982, when there were no games.
Under the terms of their broadcast deal, the Premier League is obliged to deliver 33 weekends and five midweek programmes.
There is a confidence within the competition that next year’s Boxing Day, a Saturday, will return to normal thanks to the way the calendar falls.
The last time Boxing Day fell on a Friday, in 2014, a full top-flight fixture list took place.
Last year, the FA announced that the FA Cup would be moving entirely to weekends, with replays scrapped, as part of a six-year agreement between themselves and the Premier League which came on the back of calendar changes ‘driven by the expanded UEFA competitions.’ – Daily Mail
