Welcome to the Fulham Supporters’ Trust Colour Coded Fixture List which tries to help Fulham fans decide when it is safe to buy tickets or travel for matches without the risk of them changing.
For a detailed explanation of how this works, keep reading. Otherwise you can jump straight to the fixture list using the button below. If viewing on a phone or tablet, landscape orientation is best.
What causes fixture changes?
Each season supporters are presented with an ever more complex fixture list which seems to change at short notice, throwing the best laid plans awry. What causes all these changes?
Selection for domestic broadcast
The current domestic broadcast deals for the Premier League give three different companies the rights to broadcast fixtures. With the 3pm Saturday kick of time protected, this means that sometimes as many as six of the ten games each weekend can be moved to accommodate broadcast. Sky and TNT (formerly BT Sport) are responsible for the majority of the moves each week, whilst Amazon Prime will show every game live in two full mid-week rounds (weeks of 3rd and 26th December).
The following table lists the typical weekend slots used by the broadcasters to show both Premier League and EFL games as well as matches from the Scottish Premiership. This is useful to know when a broadcast announcement has been made but slots are still available and therefore at risk of being filled later. The slots usually filled by Premier League games are highlighted in bold.
Sky | TNT (formerly BT) |
|---|---|
| Friday 20:00 Saturday 12:30 Saturday 17:30 Sunday 12:00 Sunday 14:00 Sunday 16:30 Monday 20:00 | Saturday 12:30 Saturday 20:00 |
It has often been difficult to determine when the announcement of fixture moves will take place. This year, the Premier League and broadcasters have published a timetable of fixture change announcements, but have given themselves considerable leeway with the wide time ranges they have declared.
Domestic cup clashes
This season, the early rounds (3 to 6) of the FA Cup are protected from clashes with the Premier League, which is a change from previous seasons. So the earliest an FA Cup game can cause a Premier League fixture move is the semi-final, which is the day we play Southampton away (April 26).
The League (Carabao) Cup doesn’t tend to interfere with Premier League fixtures as it is played in midweek, with the exception of the final. However rounds 3 and 5 do clash with certain European game weeks, which could have an impact depending on the draw. Round 3, in particular, is complicated enough that it has been split across two midweeks to cater for the possible European clashes.
European competition clashes
Although Fulham didn’t qualify for European competition, seven Premier League teams did and the scheduling of these fixtures often has an impact on the following (and occasionally preceding) league games. This is particularly the case with teams competing in the Europa League and Europa Conference League who generally play on Thursdays; any Premier League fixtures following a Thursday European game will be moved at least to the Sunday even without TV broadcast to allow for recovery time. Similarly teams who play away in the Champions League on a Wednesday can’t have their following league game moved to a Friday or early Saturday slot by the TV companies, which means that any domestic broadcast will be on Sunday or Monday.
A quick glance at the fixture list shows that before the end of January when the European groups stages finish, we have four games that follow our opponents midweek European games and two that precede them. However, only two of them (Tottenham away, Man Utd at home) follow a Thursday Europa League / Conference League fixture which are almost certain to move.
- 5 Oct – Man City (away) follows Champions League game
- 19 Oct – Aston Villa (home) precedes Champions League game
- 30 Nov – Tottenham (away) follows Europa League game
- 7 Dec – Arsenal (home) precedes Champions League game
- 14 Dec – Liverpool (away) follows Champions League game
- 25 Jan – Man Utd (home) follows Europa League game
Beyond Christmas much depends on qualification from the European group stages, but there are a further four games which could be impacted in a similar way which we need to keep an eye on.
The final complexity surrounding European fixtures occurs when the scheduling of a Champions League game by UEFA, often on a Tuesday, causes a domestic broadcaster to have to relinquish an earlier Sunday or Monday slot for that team or even delay match selection. Situations have occurred in the past where this caused knock-ons to the games the domestic broadcaster had already chosen and consequent unexpected late notice unexpected fixture moves. These conditional picks are just about the hardest moves to track and predict as they can mean games not involving any teams competing in Europe are moved to accommodate the revised broadcast schedule.
The FSA has this handy explainer on conditional picks, which are becoming more and more common.
Recovery between matches over Christmas
The Premier League now stipulates a minimum recovery period for teams of 60 hours between matches over Christmas. This means a fixture can be re-scheduled as a knock-on effect of a earlier move even if it hasn’t itself been selected for broadcast. As an example of this, two seasons ago our game at Leicester was pushed back 24 hours as Leicester’s previous game had been moved for TV.
Winter break
There is no winter break this season.
How to read the colour coded fixture list
To the best of our ability we will monitor all of the move risks listed above, mark them in the Colour Coded Fixture List and classify each game as either green (no longer likely to change), amber (could still change) or red (has changed). The specific colours have been selected to support use by colour blind readers, but symbols on the left of the table also indicate this status.
Other key points in the calendar, such as breaks and cup dates, are shown for information and the fixture list also indicates the obvious clashes and shows the expected dates of broadcast announcements, albeit these can often be quite fluid.
This definitely isn’t an exact science, and relies heavily on assessing limited information from the Premier League and the domestic broadcasters, coupled with a detailed look at how TV slots have been filled with games from various leagues. We also have to keep an eye on activities at the other teams in the borough. We’ll keep updating as the season progresses.
Key
Fixture has changed
Fixture could still change
Fixture no longer likely to change
Calendar information
The last update took place on Friday 13 September 2024.
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