Several media outlets have been carrying the news of when the Premier League fixtures will be released meaning that it will not leave much time between knowing the dates of the games and them actually being played.

The popular date for the release of the Premier League fixtures seems to be in a week's time Friday 21st August, only three weeks before the start of the season on September 12th.

The end date will be Sunday May 21st 2021 just 19 days before the start of the rescheduled Euro 2020 or is it Euro 2021 now ! There is also the cup final to be slotted into the calendar.

Even Sky seem reticent to announce the exact date the fixtures will be out, they say that it will be "by" that date, so in theory it could be any tie between now and then, although I would say that Wednesday would be the earliest.

Why it is taking this time is a mystery, the planning will have been going on for a long time now and most of the fixture list would have been in place before the play off final at Wembley on 4th August 10 days ago.

Indeed the fact that the game was between two clubs only a few miles apart would have been a help in that essentially the logistics would have been virtually the same for both clubs.

Football fans like to get the dates in their diaries early so I can't see why there is a wait, aside from the fact that for the first month at least with no fans being allowed into the grounds, it won't make so much difference where you are.

In this equation there is also the question whether every game will be televised as in lockdown or will it now revert to the usual scheduling with around half of the fixtures shown live.

Anyway it seems that we now have only a week to go and then the real planning starts and that is how each individual club gets it's supporters back into limited capacity stadiums.

Photo: Action Images

dirk_doone added 09:59 - Aug 14 The government's current plan is to allow spectators back into games, in limited numbers, from October 1st if the piloting of a small number of sporting events to test the safe return of spectators is successful. So, with the season starting on September 12th, that means only the first 1 or 2 home games will be played in an empty stadium.
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60yearsandcounting added 12:06 - Aug 14 How are clubs, Saints particularly, going to decide who the "limited numbers" are going to be? Presumably they will be season ticket holders - by ballot? seating plan/arrangement? Or open to all in a weekly raffle? And half-time beer/toilet queues? I'm sure we can all guess the teams going to be shown live!! Picking up their extra millions, whilst the rest of us are left unable to see our teams play in any form, smaller clubs with half-full grounds and limited TV income struggling whilst the rich get richer and spend obscene millions from our TV subscriptions on over-priced players. Surely, in this technological age, whilst attendance is restricted, we should have live-streaming of all teams; season ticket holders having already paid for a seat get it for free, pay-on-the-day fans for a fee. We get to see football of our choice, the clubs get some income: (non/partial-refund of season tickets; sale of streaming)

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