Whenever a new football season starts, one of the things that fans and teams keep a close eye on is the fixtures. It features the entire schedule of games throughout the season, from the dates to the teams that will play at home. Whether you will watch the matches inside the stadium or via live football streams, you always look into the fixtures not only to when and where your favourite teams will play but also if the schedules are fair.
Some believe that the fixtures are biased. However, have you ever wondered how they actually lay down the schedules or what the league considers when planning fixtures? You will be surprised by how complicated the process is and the level of planning that goes into creating the whole season’s schedules. Here are some trivia about the English Premier League fixtures.
1. There are 380 games scheduled for the EPL.
English football has four main divisions, with the English Premier League (EPL) being one of the most popular globally. Each division played in a round-robin tournament twice. This means each team will play every other team once at home and once away. That’s a total of 380 games scheduled in the EPL alone.
To keep track of all of these games, make sure to look at official announcements from the Football League, news from sports channels like ESPN and BBC, or dedicated sports platforms like ProTipster.
2. Planning starts at the start of every year.
Glenn Thompson, the person in charge of scheduling the games for this year’s Premier League, told Manchester Evening News that he receives the playing dates at the beginning of every year. The data he receives include dates from FIFA, the European club competitions, and the Football Association. The remaining dates are when they can play the league and league Cup matches.
Aside from this, the Football League also gives out questionnaires to all the clubs before the start of every season to ask for any special requests. After collecting data, the initial schedules are produced and refined as key stakeholders discuss and consider several factors.
3. Many use simulated annealing for sports schedules.
Sports scheduling has become a special area of interest for fans and researchers due to its complexity. A popular method used when creating fixtures is simulated annealing, which is inspired by the process of cooling metals to ensure that it forms a uniform crystal structure.
When used in sports scheduling, the process starts with an initial schedule. Then, it improves the schedule by making small changes, like switching a home and away team or changing a date. The key part of this process is that changes are made gradually to further improve the schedule until you arrive at the final fixture.
4. The fixtures consider many factors.
A lot of factors go into creating fixtures. For one, a rule in English football is that teams can’t play other teams from another division. However, this doesn’t mean they can be scheduled separately. As per the Football League’s rule, paired teams can’t play at home on the same day or weekend.
These rules are in place in consideration of crowd control in cities, the revenue effect on a club, shared resources, and transport. Plus, the league also needs to consider other local and international football fixtures. All of these are factors for scheduling matches throughout the season.
5. Schedules also consider special requests from clubs.
These special requests could happen during the survey or the discussion of schedules, depending on the no matter and urgency. Some of the special requests that clubs may submit include switching dates since their stadium is used for another event, if it is a public holiday and a town prefers not to have fans visiting during that time, or if other major events in a city should not coincide with the games.
6. The police also have additional conditions.
As the police keep the safety and security within cities, they are also key stakeholders when planning fixtures. Additional conditions from the police include having a limited number of teams playing in their jurisdiction. After all, the police will also need to safeguard other events taking place within the city during the same time. Not having enough security around might result in chaos.
Overall, there’s no doubt that scheduling football matches are a complicated matter, and that the Football League does a great job of sorting fixtures. So, the next time you look into your favourite team’s schedule for the season and become unhappy with the fixtures, remember that it is a result of complex planning for one of the biggest football events worldwide.
Find more of the latest football news and fixtures at Fan Banter.
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