Premiership and SPL Fixtures Released

By Alan
Soccer City FC

The seasons of the major European leagues only finished a matter of a month ago but the fixtures for the 2008/2009 Premiership and Scottish Premier League campaigns have already been released. It is one of the most important dates on the calendar as fans eagerly find out who awaits them on the opening day and allows them to start planning for the new season.

The fixtures were decided through a structure that is designed to avoid international and European matches and hence the need for midweek matches as the 38 games, in the case of the Premiership and SPL, need to be completed by a certain finishing date. Fixture changes are inevitable though as clubs find themselves advancing further into competitions and so league commitments have to be re-arranged. The initial fixtures have been designed so that a home match should be followed by an away match, or vice-versa, and ensuring that there are not two consecutive home or away games together and making it as fair as possible for each club.

The fixture structure is additionally complicated as those teams very close to each other must have corresponding games, with one being home and the other being away for sufficient police resources to be present. Two home games would not allow this and when it does happen, they will appear on different days to make it easier to make the games easier to manage. No games will be played on New Year’s Day in the Premiership and the lower English divisions as the FA Cup is staged on the first Saturday in January. To have a match on Thursday 1st January would make it extremely difficult to have the FA Cup matches on the Saturday so the league games for then have been sacrificed for another date.

The dates below are of the first three and last three fixtures for each club.

Arsenal
First 3
August: 16th West Brom (H), 23rd Fulham (A), 30th Newcastle (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Chelsea (H), 16th Man Utd (A), 24th Stoke (H)

Aston Villa
First 3
August: 16th Man City (H), 23rd Stoke (A), 30th Liverpool (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Fulham (A), 16th Middlesbrough (A), 24th Newcastle (H)

Blackburn
First 3
August: 16th Everton (A), 23rd Hull (H), 30th West Ham (A)
Last 3
May: 9th Portsmouth (H), 16th Chelsea (A), 24th West Brom (H)

Bolton
First 3
August: 16th Stoke (H), 23rd Newcastle (A), 30th West Brom (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Sunderland (H), 16th Hull (H), 24th Man City (A)

Chelsea
First 3
August: 16th Portsmouth (H), 23rd Wigan (A), 30th Tottenham (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Arsenal (A), 16th Blackburn (H), 24th Sunderland (A)

Everton
First 3
August: 16th Blackburn (H), 23rd West Brom (A), 30th Portsmouth (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Tottenham (H), 16th West Ham (H), 24th Fulham (A)

Fulham
First 3
August: 16th Hull (A), 23rd Arsenal (H), 30th Man Utd (A)
Last 3
May: 9th Aston Villa (H), 16th Newcastle (A), 24th Everton (H)

Hull
First 3
August: 16th Fulham (H), 23rd Blackburn (A), 30th Wigan (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Stoke (H), 16th Bolton (A), 24th Man Utd (H)

Liverpool
First 3
August: 16th Sunderland (A), 23rd Middlesbrough (H), 30th Aston Villa (A)
Last 3
May: 9th West Ham (A), 16th West Brom (A), 24th Tottenham (H)

Man City
First 3
August: 16th Aston Villa (A), 23rd West Ham (H), 30th Sunderland (A)
Last 3
May: 9th Man Utd (A), 16th Tottenham (A), 24th Bolton (H)

Man Utd
First 3
August: 16th Newcastle (H), 23rd Portsmouth (A), 30th Fulham (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Man City (H), 16th Arsenal (H), 24th Hull (A)

Newcastle
First 3
August: 16th Man Utd (A), 23rd Bolton (H), 30th Arsenal (A)
Last 3
May: 9th Middlesbrough (H), 16th Fulham (H), 24th Aston Villa (A)

Middlesbrough
First 3
August: 16th Tottenham (H), 23rd Liverpool (A), 30th Stoke (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Newcastle (A), 16th Aston Villa (H), 24th West Ham (A)

Portsmouth
First 3
August: 16th Chelsea (A), 23rd Man Utd (H), 30th Everton (A)
Last 3
May: 9th Blackburn (A), 16th Sunderland (H), 24th Wigan (A)

Stoke
First 3
August: 16th Bolton (A), 23rd Aston Villa (H), 30th Middlesbrough (A)
Last 3
May: 9th Hull (A), 16th Wigan (H), 24th Arsenal (A)

Sunderland
First 3
August: 16th Liverpool (H), 23rd Tottenham (A), 30th Man City (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Bolton (A), 16th Portsmouth (A), 24th Chelsea (H)

Tottenham
First 3
August: 16th Middlesbrough (A), 23rd Sunderland (H), 30th Chelsea (A)
Last 3
May: 9th Everton (A), 16th Man City (H), 24th Liverpool (A)

West Brom
First 3
August: 16th Arsenal (A), 23rd Everton (H), 30th Bolton (A)
Last 3
May: 9th Wigan (H), 16th Liverpool (H), 24th Blackburn (A)

West Ham
First 3
August: 16th Wigan (H), 23rd Man City (A), 30th Blackburn (H)
Last 3
May: 9th Liverpool (H), 16th Everton (A), 24th Middlesbrough (H)

Wigan
First 3
August: 6th West Ham (A), 23rd Chelsea (H), 30th Hull (A)
Last 3
May: 9th West Brom (A), 16th Stoke (A), 24th Portsmouth (H)

Scottish Premier League Fixtures
Opening Fixtures

Saturday, 09 August 2008
Aberdeen v Inverness CT, 15:00
Falkirk v Rangers, 12:30
Hearts v Motherwell, 15:00
Kilmarnock v Hibernian, 15:00

Sunday, 10 August 2008
Celtic v St Mirren, 12:30

Monday, 11 August 2008
Hamilton v Dundee Utd, 19:45

Closing Fixtures

Saturday, 18 April 2009
Celtic v Aberdeen, 15:00
Dundee Utd v Kilmarnock, 15:00
Falkirk v Hearts, 15:00
Hibernian v Rangers, 15:00
Inverness CT v Hamilton, 15:00
Motherwell v St Mirren, 15:00