Change to Premier League fixtures even before they are announced

The big day at last, Premier League fixtures released at 9am this morning (Thursday 16 June) for the 2022/23 season.

There will then follow the usual wait before the broadcasters tell us exactly when the early rounds of individual matches will be played.

We will though at least this morning now have the rough framework of what order each Premier League club will play their matches in.

However, on the eve of the Premier League fixtures being released, a newspaper ‘exclusive’ has already revealed one change that has been made to the scheduling, with this from The Telegraph.

‘Exclusive: Premier League to scrap fixtures between Boxing Day and New Year in festive shake-up

The traditional festive round of Premier League matches between Boxing Day and and New Year is being dropped from schedules in a move to ease player burnout after the World Cup.

Normal Dec 28 fixtures have been moved to counter concerns over the Boxing Day return to domestic duties coming just eight days after the final in Doha.

Telegraph Sport understands the Premier League will announce in its club fixture lists on Thursday that its festive calendar will now only include Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and Jan 2.’

When you look at the overall schedule this football season, that is laid out below, I think you will agree that this moving of the 28 December 2022 round of Premier League fixtures is putting a very small sticking plaster on a very big problem.

A bit late for the football authorities to be worrying about ‘player burnout’ this upcoming season!

Basically, there will be a six week gap with no Premier League games, in order to accommodate the Qatar World Cup, however, the 2022/23 PL season will only start a week earlier and finish a week later compared to the 2021/22 PL season.

There are 16 rounds of Premier League matches to be fitted in by 13 November 2022, last year Newcastle United had played 11 PL matches by then.

There are also all the Champions League and Europa League group games to be completed by the first few days of November, last season it was by early December.

Whilst not playing Premier League fixtures on 28 December 2022 simply means those matches have to be fitted in sometime else!

Between 26 December 2022 and 28 May 2023 there are the other 22 rounds of Premier League fixtures to be played. So you can guaranteed that whenever those 28 December matches have been moved back to, people will be moaning when that comes around, especially no doubt clubs who are still involved in European competition.

As always, no guarantees about how this season is going to work out for anybody BUT it is going to be a busy one!

How the 2022/23 Premier League fixtures fit into the new season:

30 July 2022 – The Football League kick off their fixtures.

6 August 2022 – The Premier League kick off their matches with 16 rounds of fixtures to be crammed in before the World Cup.

Week commencing Monday 31 October 2022 – All six group games in Champions League and Europa League completed in this week.

12/13 November 2022 – Final round of Premier League fixtures before the World Cup.

14 November 2022 – Players able to join up with national squads only a week ahead of the finals starting.

21 November to 18 December 2022 – Qatar World Cup takes place.

4 December 2022 – Championship matches to begin again after the World Cup group stage.

26 December 2022 – Full round of Premier League fixtures, the first of 22 more rounds of games to be fitted in by end of May.

28 May 2023 – Final round of Premier League 2022/23 fixtures.

3 June 2023 – FA Cup final.

10 June 2023 – Champions League final.