Manchester City finished the 2023/24 season as Premier League champions, as Pep Guardiola’s side defended their crown and sealed a record fourth consecutive English top-flight title.
However, with a busy summer of football on the calendar, the gap between the end of that campaign and the start of the 2024/25 season is narrow, with Euro 2024 and the Copa América filling the void for fans.
Ipswich Town have secured a return to the Premier League for the first time since 2002 for the new season, with Leicester City and Southampton also making big returns.
There will also be plenty of other changes for the new campaign as Liverpool prepare for life after Jurgen Klopp, but VAR will remain in place following a Premier League vote on its use.
The first step on the road to the new season is setting the match schedule, and that in itself involves a lot of discussion. But how exactly are those games decided? Does the famous ‘fixed computer’ really exist? The Jugo Mobile has the answers…
How is the Premier League match schedule decided?
Despite fan enthusiasm surrounding the infamous ‘fixed computer’ that produces surprises every season, Premier League programming is more structured than all that.
Within the programming plans, the Premier League must consider a series of variables before publishing the final list.
Prior to the allocation of Premier League matches, programmers enter all international/FIFA windows, European club competitions and FA Cup/EFL matches, with the remaining slots reserved for Premier League matches. .
The matches are then broken down into “sequencing”, with five weeks of matches built at a time. Within each five-game block, teams receive three home and two away games, and the process is reversed for the second set.
Each club is placed on a “matchup grid”, which confirms home matches, with matches mixed in at random to determine the final details of each match.
This system prevents teams from playing successive home or away games at the beginning or end of the season to avoid unfair advantages. Rules surrounding broadcasting prevent an exact replication of matches in the second half of the season, and game weeks 1 through 19 are not exactly repeated.
What rules apply to the Premier League match schedule?
In addition to rules to prevent “stacking” of games at both ends of the campaign, there are also requirements on certain dates. The Premier League’s restrictions on festive period matches mean that a team cannot play home or away matches on Boxing Day and New Year’s Day over the Christmas period.
There are also safety and planning criteria for matches involving clubs from the same city, and Liverpool/Everton or Manchester City/Manchester United must rotate home matches, to avoid “doubling up” at home in one day.
When will the 2024/25 Premier League fixtures be revealed?
The 2024/25 Premier League calendar is published on Tuesday, June 18, 2024 at 9am BST. Below we tell you when and at what time the accessory will be launched in various parts of the world:
| Region | Date | Time |
| United Kingdom | Tuesday June 18 | 9:00 am Pacific Time |
| United States/Canada | Tuesday, June 18 | 4:00 a.m. Eastern Time |
| Australia | Tuesday, June 18 | 6:00 pm AEST |
| India | Tuesday, June 18 | 1:30 pm Eastern Time |
When will the 2024/25 Premier League start and end?
The 2024/25 season will begin on Saturday August 17 but this could be adjusted to a Friday night start, August 16.
The 2024/25 season will end on Sunday, May 25which is one week after 2023/24, with no major international tournaments scheduled for 2025.
