It feels like the season only finished two minutes ago, but we will already be able to start building up to the next one on Wednesday morning, when the new fixtures are released.
For the first time in eight years Premier League fans will see their side take on Sunderland, after the Black Cats joined Burnley and Leeds in earning promotion back to the top-flight.
Liverpool will also be eagerly eyeing up their own fixture list, working out where the crunch games will come up in their bid to retain the Premier League title, with Arsenal and Man City likely hell bent on stopping Arne Slot’s side.
It may seem like the lists come out a little early, however Premier League officials have revealed that the process actually takes around six months, given the amount of data that goes into compiling the fixtures.
The task, carried out by a French company, Atos, who are based near Paris, sees data entered into the system, such as the dates of international windows and European club games, before coming up with the list.
That job becomes even harder with nine Premier League sides set to play in European competitions next term. Tottenham join Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Newcastle in the Champions League, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace will play in the Europa League, while Nottingham Forest enter the Conference League play-offs.
The Premier League will release the fixtures for next season’s campaign on Wednesday
Liverpool will be looking to defend their title after winning a second Premier League crown
Sunderland return to the competition for the first time in eight years after winning the play-offs
That’s sort of to be expected, but there are also other factors such as proximity between clubs on certain days and policing capacity to take into consideration, to ensure resources are not so thinly spread.
In this sense, larger metropolitan areas with more than one club become a problem, such as Manchester, Liverpool and London.
With the former two northern cities, Man City and Man United and Liverpool and Everton are not permitted to play on the same day at home, while London’s greater resources – and number of teams – mean that is not such an issue therein.
However there are three golden rules which cannot be broken when it comes to producing the fixture list. Firstly, teams must play three home games and two away games, or vice versa, in a five-game span; teams cannot have a four and one situation either way.
Similarly, no side is allowed to begin or end the season with two home or two away matches.
And lastly, teams aren’t allowed to play home or away twice within the Christmas period, during Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.
A list is then produced based on all these mitigating factors, after teams have been paired up in a grid to determine home or away status, which is reviewed manually by Atos and officials from both the Premier League and the English Football League.
After all that, if any errors still exist, then the system is repeated, with a brand new set of games being produced, and so on until a list is approved and officially rubber-stamped, to be announced in late June.
Wednesday, June 18 will see the games for next campaign released, and you can follow all the action as it unfolds LIVE with Mail Sport.
