Article: How they set the fixtures

This is an interesting article on how they set the fixtures, from the premierleague.com web site. For example, I did not know that each team is apired with another and is never at home on the same day (I assume our pairing ws with Chelsea). Also, Boxing Day fixtures are set in part based on the fact there is less public transportation on that holiday.

With about eight hours until the 2005-06 fixtures are released, I hope that we begin at home against a weaker team (but not one of the newly promoted teams) and that we have 2-3 games under our belt before we play one of the big three.

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COMPILING THE FIXTURE LIST
The release of the 380-game fixture list for the Barclays Premiership 2005/06 season this Thursday at 10am will mark the end of a complex process involving several months of work for representatives of all the parties involved.

The Premier League work alongside the Football League, together with representatives of the Football Association, the Football Supporters' Federation and the Police to create a final schedule, which is acceptable to all.

The domestic football season runs from August through to May the following year, with the league fixture schedule having to take into account the requirements for international matches, European club competitions, the FA Cup and League Cup.

First priority in the calendar goes to international matches - such as World Cup and European Championship qualifiers - with European club competitions, the FA Cup and League Cup taking respective precedence on their selected dates.

Fixture questionnaires are also distributed to the 20 Barclays Premiership clubs on which they can make date requests and specify their preferred midweek day and kick-off time.

A variety of requests are made by clubs in the Premier League and Football League, with the compilers asked to meet - on average - over 100 date requests.

The success rate is almost 90 per cent for such requests, which range from pop concerts, carnivals and political party conferences to the Darlington Dog Show.

Given the amount of data to be handled, software developed by Atos Origin is then used to compile the full fixture list taking into account the agreed schedule and requests from clubs.

Each club across the league is also paired with another, and these clubs will not play home matches on the same day - for example Manchester United and Manchester City.

The Atos Origin software also ensures that any club who are away on the opening day of the season will be at home for their next match, and prevents clubs having a run of more than two home or away matches in sequence.

The fixtures for Boxing Day matches are hand-picked to ensure that as many fans as possible are able to see their team in action at a time when the availability of public transport is reduced.

Once the Atos Origin software has produced the fixture list, it is analysed by the fixture officers from the Premier League and Football League before being approved by representatives of the FA, FSF and Police.

The fixtures are then released to the public, with the selection of matches to appear live on BSkyB being made shortly after.

And you can be the first to see the new fixtures for the 2005/06 Barclays Premiership season when they are released here on premierleague.com at 10am on Thursday.