Fixture chaos imminent… but only for some – James Calvert

When the idea first surfaced that English football should take a ‘COVID break’ over the festive season I thought it was a rather stupid plan. All I saw was potential to cause a chaotic pile-up of fixtures in 2022, a year that is already a scheduling mess thanks to FIFA’s mindless decision to have a World Cup in November and December.

But, in hindsight, my opposition to the idea appears to have been flawed. Why? Well, thanks to all the COVID postponements, we now have a situation where the fixture pile-up will still happen… but only for certain clubs. And that is going to undermine the fundamental fairness of the league system.

In the Premier League, for example, some teams have had three games postponed while others have not been affected at all. That means those with a backlog are going to have to squeeze those missed games into the second half of the season while those who have carried on playing will be comparatively relaxed.

And, as we all know, the second half of the season is where the football gets properly serious, where each game is crucial. The last thing any team challenging for promotion – or battling relegation – wants is to be playing extra, rescheduled games.

And...