Less than 24 hours now to go now before the release of the Premier league fixture list when football fans around the country can once again plan their year.
The provisional fixtures for the Premier League in Saints case, will be officially available at 9am when suddenly media outlets will flash them around the World, provisional because before the season starts they will have changed and by the end of the season some clubs will have played very few games at the actual date and time they were originally scheduled for back in June.
Even a lub like Saints who would have been one of the least attractive sides when it came to selecting them for T viewing saw around a third of their fixtures played with a different kick off than first announced.
Interestingly the work that goes into compiling the fixtures starts around four years before the actual season in question, that is when both FIFA & UEFA will set out their international schedule for their coming tournaments including qualifying rounds etc.
The first draft schedule will actually be produced in the November of the season before, of course there are many variables then, not least as who will be promoted or relegated is not yet known, also the Premier League and the football league have to work together to ensure that neighboring clubs are not at home on the same day, not as easy as it sounds as in some areas there are more than one team in close proximity and for instance a club like Orient in London might wish to avoid playing on the same day as West Ham, not because of crowd problems but it may take numbers off Orient's gate.
In Manchester for instance there are 8 clubs in the Greater Manchester area to consider, but it doesnt stop there, in the major cities there are often events that may conflict, ie Political Party Conferences, Gay Pride weekends, and in London things like the Boat Race, London marathon etc.
Then there are the questions of back to back home and away games, a club isnt allowed to play more than three games home and away in a five match period and this is complicated more over the Xmas period when clubs who play at home on Boxing Day have to be away on New Years ay & vice versa.
Then there is the financial implication problems, believe it or not the Leagues try to schedule midweek games in good weather periods and they also try to make sure that clubs dont have an away game either side of a cup weekend, very crucial for lower league clubs who could find themselves without a home game and vital income for a whole month is that was to be the case.
In essence the fixture list is split into ten mini leagues and these mini leagues will then effetively reverse at another stage in the season.
The draft fixture list is then sent out to the Clubs in March, when they are asked for any requests for change to be sent in then, its rare that a blank form is returned by a club, with some clubs having specific requests for a home game on a certain date, ie anniversaries etc, these will be accomodated if possible.
However as you can imagine to change one fixture can have a knock on effect so its not quite as easy as it sounds.
When all these forms are back and the fixtures are tweaked as needed and possible, then after the promotion and relegation issues are settled the full fixture list can be finalised.
As we know though, the "finalised" fixture list released tomorrow is far from the finished article and there will be literally hundreds of changes for TV etc, for Saints, a home change for TV is usually very easy due to the only clubs near to us being Bournemouth & Portsmouth, for others its not so simple, in that if Sky for instance wants Spurs V Man Utd for a televised match it might prefer it for a 4pm Sunday kick off, however other events in London on that day may mean that the Police would object, meaning that it would have to be either a changed time on the Saturday or Monday night.
Anyway Wednesday 9am is the time that football fans all over the country can know exactly where they are going to be over the next 11 months and can start planning holidays around the fixture list and accepting wedding invitations etc.