Monday 15 June 2009

The fixtures - how they do it...

Interesting piece from the BBC this morning about how the fixture list is put together. I was aware that every club is paired with a neighbouring side to ensure they are not both playing at home on the same day but I didn't realise they went as far as to take into consideration things like ensuring smaller clubs have a home fixture before or after cup ties in order that they might maximise revenues from a cup run or the running of race meetings that could affect local clubs like Cheltenham or Brighton.

When all's said and done, they acknowledge that certain 'silly' fixture are inevitable as they are considered "least worst" of the options available. Let's hope we don't have too many of these; Newcastle away over Christmas immediately springs to mind from the recent past. Wednesday at 10am is the big reveal!

4 comments:

  1. How come we were not paired with C>pal and Chelsea or West Ham.
    Bet we are at home when Millwall are.

    Watch this space

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  2. They intimated that the clubs are approached about this pre-season. If that's how it works, then you would think both us and Millwall would not want to be playing at home together when we are in the same division? Palace might be more of a draw for Millwall fans if both Charlton and Palace are in different divisions as happened last year? Presumably Palace would not want to be drawn at home with us because of our relatively larger attendances and the fact that we've had the bigger boys visiting us in the last few seasons. Alas, no longer a problem for them! I think we'll be away when the Lions are home.

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  3. The Millwall pairing sounds the most logical this season. London stretches the Met as it is. We'll see tomorrow.
    I also watch for the West Ham and Orient home games...that always makes getting to a game more interesting...

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  4. hmmm...and now reading the system, we could impact on all sorts of clubs...from Gillingham to Brighton, or we might have done when we weren't in the same league!

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Go on, you know you want to....