The next Premier London Derbies (PLDs) match is Chelsea v Fulham on Saturday 30 August 2025. There have been 3 home wins, 1 draw, and 1 away win in the 5 meetings since the 2016-17 season. It’s very early in this season but after their thumping 1-5 win in East London last weekend Chelsea will be looking to avenge their 1-2 home defeat last season by their West London neighbours. This Match will mean The Blues have not yet moved out of London in their opening three Premier League (PL) matches. This begs the question how do the FA Premier League set the season’s Fixture List?
Three obvious factors to consider are traffic congestion on match days; potential fan violence with large numbers of people on the move and mixing; and that both of these dictate policing needs. Add to this other events in the vicinity and demonstrations and protest marches, and very volatile situations could, and do, arise. Clubs are “paired” with another in a geographically more distant location, and their fixtures reflect one another so as to keep near neighbours with big followings apart on match days until local derbies occur. The ordinary fixture list has to be integrated with domestic and international competitions, and then of course there are the demands of television both terrestrial, if they can afford it, and satellite.
The FA Premier League summarizes the process with the following statement: “In brief: Premier league fixtures are chosen through a multi-month scheduling process using a computer algorithm that incorporates international and domestic competition dates, policing and safety constraints, club requests, and rules ensuring balance and fairness in home and away games.” So there you have it.
Until next time, enjoy your football whomever you follow, Andrew @ PLDs.