TV Coverage and Saints participation in the Europa League has meant that already eight games have moved from the original Saturday dates.

Saints will start their campaign on the road with the first Friday night fixture of the Premier league season, the trip to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United will now be played at 8pm on Friday 19th August meaning that Saints fans will have to take Friday off if they want to go, and face not arriving home till around 3am on Saturday morning.

That is followed up by the Swansea City home game being moved to Sunday 18th September with a 2.15 pm kick off due to our participation in the Europa League the previous Thursday evening.

A week later and Saints first ever visit to the Olympic Stadium to face West Ham will also be a Sunday, this time the 25th September with a 4pm kick off for TV .

Then it starts to get hectic in the Europa League with a further five games moved to the Sunday due to our Europa League campaign.

Leicester City vs Southampton — Sunday 2nd October 2016

Manchester City vs Southampton — Sunday 23rd October 2016

Hull City vs Southampton — Sunday 6th November 2016

Southampton vs Everton — Sunday 27th November 2016

Southampton vs Middlesbrough Sunday 1tth December.

These last five could be subject to further change due to television, although that will only be down to kick off times and perhaps a move to Monday evening.

There are those who say they are fed up with games being moved, but the reality is that we have been playing games at other times other Saturday 3pm for the past 24 years in the Premier league and longer still pre Sky.

Indeed perhaps one of the greatest games in our history came on a Friday evening when we beat Liverpool 2-0 at the Dell in March 1984.

Modern football has to adapt I'm afraid, the days of Saturday 3pm being the standard time have been gone for a quarter of a century , if we want success then it is the price we have to pay, I would rather be in the Europa League and have a few kick off changes than not be.

So what does everyone else think ?

Photo: Action Images

SalisburySaint added 06:45 - Jul 8 As you say playing on Sunday is IMO a price worth paying for qualifying for Europa League Really looking forward to going away to the likes or Inter, Florentina, Bilbao, Celts Vigo, Bragia, Zenit etc., plus some as the lesser teams like Slovan Bratislava, Odd
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highfield49 added 09:29 - Jul 8 Tbh I'm less concerned with kick off times than being held to ransom by BT to watch Saints either in Europe or, potentially, some league games. Having already paid Sky lots of money to have fixtures switched around I'm then faced with the prospect of having to buy BT broadband or an extortionate viewing fee for a frequently iffy sports coverage. With some of the streamed coverage of matches in Europe offered by dubious web sites or subscription only channels the supporters get ripped off time and time again. Love my football club but hate the commercial couldn't care less attitude to supporters. I know that I'm fortunate to have the choice to see matches that I would otherwise miss but isn't pay per view something the tv people could offer?

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simmo400 added 19:24 - Jul 9 If you own PC and have decent wifi your have no problems picking up Saints games.
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