{"id":252642,"date":"2025-10-31T16:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/252642\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T16:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T16:19:11","slug":"premier-league-abandons-boxing-day-tradition-as-festive-fixture-schedule-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/252642\/","title":{"rendered":"Premier League abandons Boxing Day tradition as festive fixture schedule released"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 jEZjIj\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p>Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/premier-league\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Premier League<\/a> has announced its fixture schedule for the festive period, with just one game scheduled for the traditional <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/boxing-day\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boxing Day<\/a> slot due to complications with a congested calendar. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/manchester-united\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Manchester United<\/a> will host <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/newcastle-united\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newcastle United<\/a> at 8pm on Friday 26 December, with a further nine fixtures to be played across Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 December. <\/p>\n<p>There were eight Premier League games played on Boxing Day last season, with all a full round of 10 top-flight fixtures played on Boxing Day the last time it fell on a Friday in 2014. <\/p>\n<p>There will then be six matches on Tuesday 30 December, and a further four on Thursday 1 January, with no matches scheduled on New Year\u2019s Eve. <\/p>\n<p>The Premier League <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/football\/premier-league-boxing-day-football-schedule-reduced-b2853502.html\" title=\"Why Premier League could see reduced Boxing Day schedule\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">must fulfil 33 weekends of fixtures <\/a>as part of its arrangements with broadcasting partners and following an agreement with the FA over the exclusivity of certain FA Cup weekends. <\/p>\n<p>The Premier League scheduled this season\u2019s midweek rounds for the start of December, January and March, another in mid-February and the fifth from Tuesday December 30. <\/p>\n<p>With<a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/sport\/football\/fa-cup-replays-scrapped-champions-league-b2530783.html\" title=\"FA Cup agrees to scrap replays due to \u2018expanded\u2019 Champions League\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> FA Cup replays scrapped<\/a>, the FA Cup has been granted exclusive weekends for the fourth, fifth and quarter-finals rounds, while the expanded Champions League league phase now concludes across two midweeks in late January. <\/p>\n<p>A statement from the Premier League said: \u201cThe Premier League would like to acknowledge the circumstances that have led to a reduced number of matches on Boxing Day this season \u2013 impacting an important tradition in English football.<\/p>\n<p> \u201cThere are now several challenges to Premier League fixture scheduling rooted in the expansion of European club competitions \u2013 which led to a revision of our domestic calendar ahead of last season, including changes to the FA Cup. This ultimately left the Premier League as a 33-weekend competition \u2013 fewer than previous seasons, despite being a 380-match competition since 1995.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith fewer weekends to work with, the League is bound by how the calendar falls. The League can give an assurance that next season there will be more Premier League matches on Boxing Day \u2013 as the date falls on a Saturday.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>There will be a full programme of EFL and non-league fixtures on Boxing Day, however, with a further round of games in the lower divisions expected on Monday 29 December. <\/p>\n<p>Premier League festive schedule<\/p>\n<p>Friday 26 December<\/p>\n<p>Manchester United v Newcastle United &#8211; 8pm <\/p>\n<p>Saturday 27 December<\/p>\n<p>Nottingham Forest v Manchester City &#8211; 12:30pm <\/p>\n<p>Arsenal v Brighton &#8211; 3pm <\/p>\n<p>Brentford v Bournemouth &#8211; 3pm <\/p>\n<p>Burnley v Everton &#8211; 3pm <\/p>\n<p>Liverpool v Wolves &#8211; 3pm <\/p>\n<p>West Ham v Fulham &#8211; 3pm <\/p>\n<p>Chelsea v Aston Villa &#8211; 5:30pm <\/p>\n<p>Sunday 28 December<\/p>\n<p>Sunderland v Leeds &#8211; 2pm <\/p>\n<p>Crystal Palace v Tottenham &#8211; 4:30pm <\/p>\n<p>Tuesday 30 December<\/p>\n<p>Burnley v Newcastle United &#8211; 7:30pm <\/p>\n<p>Chelsea v Bournemouth &#8211; 7:30pm <\/p>\n<p>Nottingham Forest v Everton &#8211; 7:30pm <\/p>\n<p>West Ham v Brighton &#8211; 7:30pm <\/p>\n<p>Arsenal v Aston Villa &#8211; 8:15pm <\/p>\n<p>Manchester United v Wolves &#8211; 8:15pm <\/p>\n<p>Thursday 1 December<\/p>\n<p>Crystal Palace v Fulham &#8211; 5:30pm<\/p>\n<p>Liverpool v Leeds &#8211; 5:30pm <\/p>\n<p>Brentford v Tottenham &#8211; 8pm <\/p>\n<p>Sunderland v Man City &#8211; 8pm <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252643,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[447],"tags":[703,49,48,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-252642","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252642"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252642\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}