How are the Premier League fixtures put together? Here's everything you need to know about the nine month-long process
TOMORROW football fans up and down the country will discover who their club's schedule for next season.
The fixtures for the
Premier League
will be released at 9am on Wednesday as supporters plot trips and annual leave, with many visiting new grounds for the first time.
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2
Liverpool are the Premier League champions
The fixture list is always eagerly anticipated as fans discover when they'll play their rivals and decide who has been 'shafted' with difficult runs.
But with 92 clubs and 2,036 matches across the top four divisions to consider, how are the fixtures exactly decided and how much planning is involved? Here SunSport explains how it all works.
How are the fixtures worked out?
Despite what fans might think, there is a method to the madness as a random generator doesn't decide who is playing who.
The man behind the list is Glenn Thompson, of Atos, an international IT services company, who has collated over 60,000 matches since taking charge back when the Premier League began in 1992.
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Thompson, who previously
His opening move is to build up a calendar by first adding all of the international dates from Fifa - which he gets three years in advance.
Next up, the European club
competitions
are added, which Thompson said were more difficult to solve last season "because of the new formats".
Thirdly, the FA add their dates for its domestic cup
competitions
.
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After the cup competitions and friendlies are out of the way, Thompson is finally left with the dates for Prem and league cup matches.
He said: "We also consult fan representatives and other stakeholders, to take on board their views."
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By March, the Premier League ask fans for special requests around certain
home and away
fixtures - which is solved while working together with the local police.
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The league even ask clubs if they have specific wants and needs about playing at home on Boxing Day.
Thompson then creates a fixture sequence which places each club in a pairing grid, which defines the dates they will be at home.
For every game, the fixture computer knows which clubs are at home and which teams are away, and then it will mix them up at random.
Are there any specific rules?
In any five matches, sides should get three home ties and two away, with the process then reversed.
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This system prevents teams from playing successive home or away games at the start or end of the season to avoid a disadvantage.
Some clubs will have a partner team that their home games cannot clash with, such as the two
Manchester
sides, as well as Liverpool and
This season, fierce rivals Sunderland and Newcastle will be added to that Prem partner team list, after the
2
Sunderland have returned to the Premier League for the first time in nine years
Credit: Getty
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In London it gets a bit more complex and less obvious because seven London-based clubs play in the Prem, while seven more feature across the EFL.
Boxing
Day, you must travel away on New Year's Day, and vice versa.
Thompson said: "We look at whether we have clubs from the same area travelling on the same train lines across the Football League and the Premier League on the same day."
What happens if there are any problems?
Thompson said: "If we have got any issues, we might have to go back and start again to produce a different set of fixtures.
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"I'm reviewing the fixtures all the time to ensure other things can be met."
The computer is useful during the
review
because it will provide alternative dates if the Prem want to change a certain fixture.
It can be that changing one match requires 40 other changes.
On Wednesday, all 20 Prem clubs will learn the provisional dates for all of their fixtures, although some fixtures are subject to change.
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The exact date and time at which individual matches take place will be
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