[Albion] Did the Premier League cause the fixture congestion or the other clubs or our club?

[Giraffe]

Like many I've been baffled why some of our rearranged games took so look to be arranged. It is clear this is going to make it very difficult for us. We had virtually no mid week games during the January to March period when we could have caught up with some of these. It feels as though we were done over because the opposing teams were teams were in Europe etc but why should we have to suffer for that? And also Newcastle were not in Europe so why not that one earlier. I've never heard whether it was our club, the other clubs or the Premier League that insisted that we had to wait?

 

[Icy Gull]

Maybe, but the Queen died just after Potter left and the break gave RDZ time with the players, so not all bad. Palace and Bournemouth were the cancelled games I think? We could very easily have lost those in the turmoil.

We will always play second fiddle to big clubs requirements

 

[Giraffe]

Maybe, but the Queen died just after Potter left and the break gave RDZ time with the players, so not all bad. Palace and Bournemouth were the cancelled games I think? We could very easily have lost those with the turmoil.

Yep I take that, but lots of time during Feb and March when we could have played at least one or two of the others.

 

[Mustafa II]

Our fixture list is an absolute piss take. It'll be impossible for us to be at 100% for many if any of our games.

It should never have been allowed to happen.

 

[Giraffe]

ps) I forgot the telly people as well. Given many of them are on the telly, maybe it's their fault as always?

 

[portlock seagull]

The level playing field is 90degrees these days. Add to a very long list of why teams like aren’t supposed to win things.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

The World Cup clearly knocked everybody's season out of shape. Big six week gap there. And the FA Cup run, welcome as it has been, was only ever going to add to fixture congestion, seeing as how all the EPL final games need to take place on 28th May. Talk about trying to fit a quart into a pint pot

 

[Beanstalk]

It's the World Cup. It left no room in the calendar for rearrangements and with the Queen dying and rail strikes etc. forcing postponements, it ended up being a complete mess that we're now dealing with. A mid-season World Cup (though enjoyable to watch if you excuse the ethical issues) was an unmitigated disaster for domestic football in Europe.

The FA Cup run also a hugely contributing factor.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Not till the FA cup final and European cup competition trajectories were clearer could the fixture rearrangements be set. The 'knock on' effect here is the thing.

Plus, obviously, this is England, where people ask why do today what can be put off till next Tuesday (when people are often keen to see you)?

It isn't rocket science.

 

[Deadly Danson]

ps) I forgot the telly people as well. Given many of them are on the telly, maybe it's their fault as always?

I think it was the telly for the Man U, Man City and Newcastle games. No idea why the Bournemouth and Palace games took so long though.

 

[A1X]

The answer is all of them.

FA Cup fixtures are "our fault", if you like.
European fixtures are other club's fault.
Train strikes for a couple which are "none of the above".
Premier League for the Queen, which in hindsight given other sports started up again that weekend no bother seems a poor decision.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

It's the World Cup. It left no room in the calendar for rearrangements and with the Queen dying and rail strikes etc. forcing postponements, it ended up being a complete mess that we're now dealing with. A mid-season World Cup (though enjoyable to watch if you excuse the ethical issues) was an unmitigated disaster for domestic football in Europe.

The FA Cup run also a hugely contributing factor.

The games cancelled for the queen was a piss take, there was no need to do that.

Was all just OTT

 

[Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo]

Yep I take that, but lots of time during Feb and March when we could have played at least one or two of the others.

Discounting the Palace and Bournemouth games which have already been played and are not part of the current fixture backlog. The only game we could have realistically played in February and March was the Newcastle game. We knew that needed to be postponed on January 31st when Newcastle beat Southampton in the league cup. There were 3 or 4 mid week options for the game to be played over Feb and March.


The Man Utd game was postponed after we won out 5th round game against Stoke on the 28th Feb. So it couldn't have been played in February at all. Most of March isn't an option because Man Utd had Europa League games and there was an international break at the end of March as well.

Similar applies to the Man City game, we didn't know it would actually need to be re-arranged until 19th March (when we won our FA Cup QF). So that couldn't have been played in Feb or March as the Grimsby game was immediately before the international break.

 

[BN41Albion]

So many weeks went by where we could've/should've played one of our postponed games. Ridiculous that they were left so long and now we have a pretty unfair run-in compared to others (on top of being top of the VAR apologies list - feels like we really have been unfortunate this season!)

 

[Springal]

So many weeks went by where we could've/should've played one of our postponed. Ridiculous that they were left so long and now we have a pretty unfair run-in compared to others (on top of being top of the VAR apologies list - feels like we really have been unfortunate this season!)

Agreed. They just didn’t want to play the palace games any closer together

 

[BBassic]

I don't know if the league can be blamed much for this really.

World Cup
Death of the Queen
Run in the FA Cup
European fixtures of our opponents
Train strikes

They can't control any of that really. Unless Liz Truss wasn't the last public figure to see the Queen. Where exactly was Richard Masters that day I wonder...

 

[spoonie]

Doesn't matter if we had been in the cup or not as we were due to face Man united on 1/4 final weekend and Man City on Semi weekend. Poor from The Premier league on this - but we do need to stop making excuses before we have even played these games

 

[SeagullsoverLondon]

Last night's game should have been played on February 25th. There seems to me to have been at least 3 midweek dates in March and April we could have played this game, notwithstanding the rearranged Bournemouth and Palace games which were also fitted in then.
I don't think anything could have been done about the dates of Man U and City, but this game definitely should have been played earlier. I know it was a Sky pick , so was it TV dictating this date, rather than us? If so, it is rather annoying.

 

[Hamilton]

It's just life. Let's all get over it.

 

[battistadonati]

Last night's game should have been played on February 25th. There seems to me to have been at least 3 midweek dates in March and April we could have played this game, notwithstanding the rearranged Bournemouth and Palace games which were also fitted in then.
I don't think anything could have been done about the dates of Man U and City, but this game definitely should have been played earlier. I know it was a Sky pick , so was it TV dictating this date, rather than us? If so, it is rather annoying.

Have you ever thought that football is as much of an attention grabber as some slots? I've thought about it, and even tried it - it's addictive. But I still like football better.
Firstly, because football is a live game, not a machine. Secondly, something interesting always happens in football and so do the slots, but the slots are often repetitive. It can all be as interesting as playing on some site like BetPokiesNZ. Give it a try. I think you should enjoy it at first, but then you'll go back to football, I'm sure.

As far as I know, television has no influence on the date of the matches. They are hired workers and are competing for contracts, so it's not to their advantage