Yahoo News Manchester United fans given Premier League pledge over fixture changes for TV games
The Premier League has committed to give at least five weeks' notice to supporters over changes to the fixture list after announcing the schedule for the 2024/25 season.
Manchester United will start their Premier League campaign at home against Fulham on Friday, August 16 with an 8pm kick-off and any changes for the five games after that are expected to be announced around Friday, July 5. That is part of a pledge by the league to give six weeks' notice to fans until December and then five weeks' notice from January; the final game of the season has already been confirmed as a 4pm kick-off at home against Aston Villa on May 25.
The changes mean that any tweaks around Christmas and New Year should be known by the middle of October, and all but three games will be sorted before the end of February. A full list of estimated release dates for the fixtures can be seen below.
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Month | Rounds | Start date | Estimated release date |
August - September | 2-6 | Tuesday 18 June | Friday 5 July |
October | 7-9 | Monday 22 July | Monday 19 August |
November | 10-13 | Monday 2 September | Friday 13 September |
December – January | 14-23 | Monday 16 September | Monday 14 October |
February | 24-27 | Thursday 14 November | Monday 9 December |
March | 28-29 | Thursday 2 January | Friday 24 January |
April | 30-34 | Monday 27 January | Friday 28 February |
May 2-5 | 35 | Monday 17 March | Friday 21 March |
May 9-12 | 36 | Monday 24 March | Friday 28 March |
May 18-19 | 37 | Monday 31 March | Friday 4 April |
United's matches could be complicated by progress in other competitions, with the FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League all throwing up the potential for matches to be switched. In particular, the Europa League's Thursday schedule means that a lot of United's Premier League games will need to be moved to a Sunday.
United supporters were treated to some appalling kick-off times last season. They were angry at the controversial scheduling of their trip to Brentford on a Saturday night over the Easter weekend in March, with away supporters facing travel chaos after an 8pm kick-off, two minutes before the last scheduled train left St Pancras for Manchester Piccadilly. There were no trains to Manchester from Euston over the Easter weekend due to engineering works.
Supporters were then also forced to travel to Bournemouth, again on a Saturday night with another 8pm kick-off, two weeks later.
A Premier League statement said: "The Premier League has committed to giving supporters a minimum of six weeks’ notice (from the first match in the relevant month) on broadcast selections until December 2024, and five weeks’ from January 2025 until Match Round 37."
United fans are also hoping that common sense will prevail over the Community Shield the week before the Premier League begins, having asked for a 3pm kick-off against Manchester City to ensure the most options for fans getting to and from Wembley.
