The presents are open, the turkey\u2019s devoured and the family bickering has momentarily paused. For hundreds of thousands of football fans that can mean only one thing: it\u2019s time for the match.<\/p>\n
But not this Boxing Day. With just one Premier League<\/a> game being played instead of the usual festive footballing feast, fans are looking elsewhere for blessed respite, with teams lower down the football pyramid hoping to entice those who are desperate to get out of the house.<\/p>\n Non-league clubs are expecting a bonanza day similar to the boost they get when International games impose a break on the top clubs, said Jon Couch, the executive editor of the Non-League Paper<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cBoxing Day is already probably the biggest day of the non-league calendar,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the day that the non league clubs look to first when the fixtures come out, because a home Boxing Day game is huge, both commercially and in terms of bringing the community together.\u201d<\/p>\n With only Manchester United and Newcastle United playing in the Premier League, much smaller \u2013 often cash-strapped \u2013 clubs will be hoping to capitalise, he added. \u201cThis year it\u2019s a real opportunity, if clubs do get a home game it\u2019s like Christmas<\/a> come late.\u201d<\/p>\n The Premier League confirmed in October<\/a> that only one game would be played this Boxing Day, citing the expansion of European competition for the gap in the schedule. The last time Boxing Day was a Friday, in 2014, there was a full top-flight programme, this year there will be the lowest number of fixtures in the top flight and Football League on Boxing Day since the second world war. The news was met with consternation and cited as further proof that the game has, indeed, gone<\/a>.<\/p>\n Speaking on TalkSPORT, the station\u2019s chief football correspondent, Alex Crook, echoed the sentiment of disgruntled fans when asked to give his opinion on the decision. \u201cI\u2019m a dinosaur, call me what you like, but Boxing Day is for sport and Boxing Day is for football,\u201d he grumbled. \u201cWe have our traditions, and football on Boxing Day is one of those traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n Kat Law, former co-chair of the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters\u2019 Trust, said Boxing Day was always \u201creally important\u201d to her because she would go off to the match with her dad while her mum and nan made lunch at home. But it was her friends who like watching a game on the TV who were the most upset, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a couple of hours out of the Christmas chaos,\u201d she said. \u201cObviously, that\u2019s not possible on Boxing Day now.\u201d<\/p>\n It has proved a headache for Greg Mitchell, a founder of the Nottingham Forest fan group Forza Garibaldi<\/a>. With a friend \u2013 a big Borussia Dortmund fan \u2013 staying over Christmas, his search to find them a decent match to go to has been frustrating. \u201cIt\u2019s so sad how all the traditions are getting slowly but surely picked apart,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n