Premier League fixture rules explained as Arsenal and Chelsea add ‘complexity’

Pictures from the final day of the Premier League

Not long to go now… The Premier League fixture lists for the 2023/24 season are scheduled to be released at 9am tomorrow morning (Thursday). Express Sport is on hand to run through the logistics of the fixture selection and any rules organisers have to adhere to.

Newcomers Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton Town are among the 20 Premier League clubs awaiting their fates.

Supporters worldwide are eager to learn their team’s opening day opponents, festive schedule and, of course, the all-important run-in.

Compiler Glenn Thompson uses Atos, an international IT services company, to produce the Premier League fixture lists.

After learning the winner of the Championship play-off final between Luton and Coventry City, Thompson will have used a fixture computer to place each Premier League club in a pairing grid to determine home dates.

The computer then knows when clubs are playing home and away before randomly mixing up fixtures to determine the season’s schedule.

There are rules to avoid complications, such as home and away league fixtures being split three to two across a five-match block.

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To ensure fairness, Premier League clubs will never start or finish the campaign with back-to-back home or away games.

And clubs at home on Boxing Day will always play away on New Year’s Day or an equivalent date, and vice versa.

In terms of local sides playing at home on the same day, partner clubs such as Manchester City and Manchester United and Liverpool and Everton will never clash.

But the process becomes more complex for London clubs like Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United, and there is occasionally flexibility.

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Travel is also considered. The computer knows to minimise travel on days like Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

An effort is also made to avoid Premier League and Football League clubs in the same area using the same train lines with each other where possible.

The Premier League, Football League and Atos figures will review the fixture list across a number of days to ensure conditions have been met.

At 9am on Thursday, there will be a sense of how the script for the 23/24 season is going to play out.

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