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>\nA 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
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-2191476782.jpeg\")
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open image in gallery<\/p>\n
The Premier League acknowledged the impact on an \u2018important\u2019 English football tradition (Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\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
\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
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
The Premier League added: \u201cAs with previous years, and in keeping with our commitment to clubs, special arrangements have been made to allow more time between games played across the festive period. This will allow greater time for players to recover with the rest periods between rounds 18, 19 and 20 being increased to ensure that no club plays within 60 hours of another match.\u201d <\/p>\n
The Football Supporters\u2019 Association criticised the decision to schedule Newcastle\u2019s game at Manchester United at 8pm on Boxing Day as \u201cthoughtless\u201d, with away fans facing a long journey home. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe Premier League’s TV selections for Xmas and NY have finally been announced a fortnight after they were supposed to be,\u201d the FSA said on X. \u201cNewcastle\u2019s game at Old Trafford – the longest trip of that game week – has been selected for a ridiculous 8pm kick-off on Boxing Day. Thoughtless.\u201d <\/p>\n
Premier League festive schedule<\/p>\n
Friday 26 December<\/p>\n
Manchester United v Newcastle United – 8pm <\/p>\n
Saturday 27 December<\/p>\n
Nottingham Forest v Manchester City – 12:30pm <\/p>\n
Arsenal v Brighton – 3pm <\/p>\n
Brentford v Bournemouth – 3pm <\/p>\n
Burnley v Everton – 3pm <\/p>\n
Liverpool v Wolves – 3pm <\/p>\n
West Ham v Fulham – 3pm <\/p>\n
Chelsea v Aston Villa – 5:30pm <\/p>\n
Sunday 28 December<\/p>\n
Sunderland v Leeds – 2pm <\/p>\n
Crystal Palace v Tottenham – 4:30pm <\/p>\n
Tuesday 30 December<\/p>\n
Burnley v Newcastle United – 7:30pm <\/p>\n
Chelsea v Bournemouth – 7:30pm <\/p>\n
Nottingham Forest v Everton – 7:30pm <\/p>\n
West Ham v Brighton – 7:30pm <\/p>\n
Arsenal v Aston Villa – 8:15pm <\/p>\n
Manchester United v Wolves – 8:15pm <\/p>\n
Thursday 1 January<\/p>\n
Crystal Palace v Fulham – 5:30pm<\/p>\n
Liverpool v Leeds – 5:30pm <\/p>\n
Brentford v Tottenham – 8pm <\/p>\n
Sunderland v Man City – 8pm <\/p>\n
Saturday 3 January<\/p>\n
Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest – 12:30pm <\/p>\n
Brighton v Burnley – 3pm <\/p>\n
Wolves v West Ham – 3pm <\/p>\n
Bournemouth v Arsenal – 5:30pm <\/p>\n
Sunday 4 January <\/p>\n
Leeds v Manchester United – 12:30pm <\/p>\n
Everton v Brentford – 3pm <\/p>\n
Fulham v Liverpool – 3pm <\/p>\n
Newcastle v Crystal Palace – 3pm <\/p>\n
Tottenham v Sunderland – 3pm <\/p>\n
Manchester City v Chelsea – 5:30pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236505,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-236504","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236504\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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