Spurs & West Ham looking for early season fixture changes

Joe Williams

Tottenham and West Ham are looking to reschedule Premier League home games which clash with prior commitments at Wembley and the Olympic Stadium, respectively.

The fixtures for the 2017/2018 campaign were released on Wednesday morning, with both London clubs quick to point out they would need to seek alternative arrangements for certain matches.

Spurs, playing at Wembley while White Hart Lane is redeveloped, are due to host Burnley on August 26, when the national stadium is set to stage rugby league’s Challenge Cup final.

The north London club posted on Twitter: “Please note: Burnley (H) Aug 26 is the same day as the Rugby League Challenge Cup Final and will need to be rescheduled. We are currently in discussions with Burnley on this matter.”

And the converted Olympic Stadium will not be back in ‘football mode’ in time for the new season as it hosts the world athletics championships in August.

The IAAF showpiece event concludes on August 13, with Slaven Bilic’s side slated to welcome Southampton on August 19.

West Ham said in a statement: “As previously confirmed, our opening fixtures in August will be played away from home as London Stadium welcomes the 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships for a once-in-a-generation occasion.

“Supporters are therefore advised that our second fixture of the campaign, against Southampton, will be rescheduled, with further details to follow.”

One solution would be for the fixtures to be reversed, like Liverpool’s games against Burnley were last term due to redevelopment works at Anfield.

Press Association Sport understands the Premier League was aware of both issues for the start of the new season.

However, given the complexities involved, the clubs will now seek the rearrange the fixtures by speaking to opponents and also taking into consideration any potential issues over Tottenham’s home matches, which are paired alongside those of north London rivals Arsenal.

The fixture-compiling process is not able to begin until the 20-team line-up is confirmed following the Sky Bet Championship play-off final, which this year saw Huddersfield defeat Reading on penalties to take their place in the Premier League for the first time.

There are also Premier League rules which must be followed – including that in any five matches a club must always have two fixtures at home and three away, or vice-versa, and no club should have more than two consecutive fixtures home or away.

Clubs are also not expected to either start or finish the campaign with two home or away matches, while local ‘pairing’ of rivals teams is also considered.

Meetings are held with representatives from all the leagues, the Football Association as well as from the Football Supporters’ Federation, with additional input by the Association of Chief Police Officers and British Transport Police.

Dates of European and cup fixtures must also be factored in, while member clubs are asked around March if there are any dates they wish not to be at home and for views on the Boxing Day schedule.

All the variables add up to a testing conundrum for Glenn Thompson, technical architect at Atos, the Premier League’s digital partner which helps deliver the schedule.

“You can’t satisfy everyone. It’s a compromise across all clubs; you can’t do anything to favour any one club,” Thompson told www.premierleague.com.

“Traditionally the Premier League, the Football League and Atos representatives will review the fixtures for two days, looking at every date in the season to make sure that, wherever possible, we have met everything we have been asked to.

“The computer is very useful during the review because if we do not want a certain fixture on a particular date, it will give us alternate dates for that fixture to be moved to. It can be that changing one match may require 40 other changes.”

The Premier League’s fixture list is also always published as being “subject to change”, with TV selections still to be made as well as accommodating European and domestic cup competitions.

The first batch of televised matches will be announced on July 10.