The 3 o’clock Kick Off Premiership Paradox

By: Daryl | October 6th, 2007

Empty stadium A few naysayers have been proclaiming the death of the 3 o’clock kick off in the Premier League this weekend. Only the Aston Villa vs West Ham game kicked off at the hallowed time today, with Manchester United vs Wigan at 12:45 so it could be on TV and all other games shifted to Sunday. But there’s no need to panic just yet, and there’s a very simple way to solve this problem.

Here’s a handy list of this weekend’s kick off times copied and pasted from Goal.com and the reasons they’re not at 3pm on a Saturday.

Saturday:

12:45 – Manchester United vs. Wigan (TV)

15:00 – Aston Villa vs. West Ham

Sunday:

12:00 – Arsenal vs. Sunderland (TV)

14:00 – Reading vs. Derby (TV)

15:00 – Blackburn vs. Birmingham (Put back 24hrs due to Uefa Cup)

15:00 – Bolton vs. Chelsea (Uefa Cup)

15:00 – Liverpool vs. Tottenham (Uefa Cup)

15:00 – Manchester City vs. Middlesbrough (United and City can’t play at home on the same day)

15:00 – Newcastle vs. Everton (Uefa Cup)

16:10 – Fulham vs. Portsmouth (TV)

Many of these games have been moved because the teams played in the UEFA Cup on Thursday night and are entitled to an extra days rest. Certainly that accounts for Spurs, Bolton, Everton and Blackburn’s games being moved to Sunday. It’s not some big Sky and Setanta conspiracy to stop fans enjoying a Saturday 3pm kick off, it’s just a scheduling quirk caused by European competition.

There’s nothing can be done about the Manchester City vs Middlesbrough game either, as United and City have to play at home on different days. But that leaves four games that could have been played on Saturday at 3pm, with the only reason being TV scheduling.

Before we all get superangry and burn Sky and Setanta’s offices to the ground, remember that it’s not all their fault. The TV companies naturally want to screen the best games possible (which with all due respect, is why Aston Villa vs West Ham was left untouched at 3pm) but the FA law is that no game kicking off at 3pm can be shown live on TV (so crowds wouldn’t opt to watch it on TV instead of buying a ticket.) So any game worth televising gets moved. Just like Manchester United vs Wigan did this afternoon.

It’s a paradox that a law introduced to protect the traditional kick off time is now responsible for damaging it. The thinking is outdated and unsuited to the modern game where multiple matches are televised over the weekend. It used to be a big event in England if your team was featured on TV, but now it’s run of the mill. So I genuinely don’t see how televising the 3pm games would affect attendances. Certainly Old Trafford would have been just as full today if the game had kicked off at 3pm.