Premier League fixture chaos shows lessons about pushing players to breaking point were ignored ✍️ danielstorey85 for iPaperSport
Domestic football is already stacked over the festive period – it restarts two days after the World Cup final with another EFL Cup round and then sees three rounds of league games between 26 December and 2 January.
For now, there is still some wiggle room. Discussions could take place over scrapping replays in the FA Cup third and fourth rounds. There is an option to extend the Premier League season by a week and play the FA Cup final a week later on 10 June, although that could interrupt Harry Styles’ plans for a Wembley concert on 13 June.
Winter weather has rarely caused recent Premier League postponements – Manchester City vs West Ham in February 2020 was one – and any spell of extreme weather that forced games to be called off would evaporate any hope of the season finishing on time or force some clubs to play four games in a week: Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday.