© Alamy
Posted on 6th September 2023
At the weekend the Premier League announced fixture changes to its September and October match schedule following the draws for the European competitions.
Supporters of the clubs involved have likely already seen the announcements explaining the fixture changes which see some games moved with just two weeks’ notice.
Everton vs Arsenal was due to be 5:30pm on Saturday 16th September, and Newcastle v Brentford due to be 4:30pm on Sunday 17th September. However, due to Newcastle now playing in the Champions League on the following Tuesday, and Arsenal on the Wednesday, the fixtures have been swapped.
This leaves less than two weeks’ notice for away fans to travel to the other side of the country, a situation that would have been completely avoidable had both teams just been selected to play on Saturday.
Since those changes were made the FSA have received and seen so many complaints about the fixtures involving Everton and Arsenal, as well as Newcastle and Brentford. The Premier League has maintained in the press this week that the original selections for these games were made on a conditional basis and therefore supporters had sufficient warning in their eyes – needless to say the countless fans left out of pocket who felt they had to book travel will disagree.
There was prior knowledge that Newcastle and Arsenal couldn’t play on the same night in the Champions League, so the Premier League and broadcasters gambled by making the selection they did.
Everton vs Arsenal is not directly impacted by another competition yet it is moved to fill a now vacant broadcast slot on the Sunday. Yet more disregard for fans.
Added to this, three of Aston Villa’s fixtures against Chelsea, Wolves and Luton Town have been moved to a Sunday due to their participation in the Europa Conference League. The FSA had asked the Premier League to asterisk this fixture to warn fans but it was not done.
However, these possible changes were not included in the initial Premier League communication for the September and October fixtures back in July and August as Aston Villa had yet to qualify, meaning there is good reason to believe some fans of Chelsea, Wolves and Luton Town will have made plans.
We have made representations to the Premier League that the planning and communication for TV fixtures that could be impacted by European fixtures has to be better, the extra cost and disruption on fans is incredibly harmful.
Despite announcing its latest round of TV selections weeks ago, the Premier League has altered the kick-off times of two games during its penultimate game week – leaving travelling fans out of pocket and forcing Manchester City fans to choose between a title battle or a cup final.
Last week we launched a survey with the Non-League Paper looking at what impact fans expected the cost of living crisis this winter to have on their attendance. If you are a fan of a non-league club, you can fill in that survey here.
The cost of living crisis and its impact upon fans at non-league level is at the heart of a new joint survey between the FSA and the Non-League Paper, which launched this weekend.
Fans at non-league are already feeling the pinch of the cost of living crisis, with more than half (57.7%) saying it had already impacted on how much money they had available to spend on football, according to the results of a joint survey between the FSA and the Non-League Paper.
