At a meeting with the Football Supporters Federation's club representatives yesterday Premier League Chairman Richard Scudamore refused to be drawn on whether there would or wouldn't be a Xmas Eve TV fixture.

The Football Supporters Federation and fan representatives from each Premier league club met with Richard Scudamore and Premier League officials in their six monthly meeting on Tuesday morning at Premier League HQ.

High on the agenda was whether there would be a televised game on Xmas Eve this year, the FSF and the club reps were united in their stance that this was a step too far in televised game scheduling, that with transport shutting down early on Xmas Eve and with football supporters wanting to spend time with their familes on that day, it was not acceptable to schedule a televised game.

Whilst undoubtably it would be a draw for armchair supporters and indeed around the World, the people it would truly affect are those who actually attend the games, who will be asked not just to abandon their families on that day, but also to have to cope with a travel network that is shutting down early, this will be bad enough for home supporters, but for the travelling away fans it will be a nightmare.

Richard Scudamore would not be drawn on the subject though, all he would confirm for sure was that although initially he had said a decision would be made by 12th October, this would now be the 19th and that there would definitely be no fixture with a kick off time of 4pm or later.

This led to several questions but Scudamore would not be drawn any further even when asked whether a 3.45pm kick off might be on the cards, although he was keen to stress the point that he and the Premier League were well aware of the opposition to the proposals and the reasoning why.

But in my opinion he seemed to be implying that although the late kick off would not be scheduled, that an early one was certainly still in the pipeline and that with Sky seemingly pushing for a game on that day, that a compromise needed to be reached and that could well be an early kick off, indeed it could be that two matches could be scheduled and although he did not say directly that this would be done on Xmas eve, Scudamore did say that dual televised fixtures in the Premier League with the same kick off time, as is the norm in the Champions League, were in the pipeline.

From a personal point of view I like many would enjoy an Xmas Eve fixture on TV, however as supporter who attends games and so who could be affected by such scheduling I can see the bigger picture and that for the fans of the team involved it would be another case of being inconvenienced for the sake of the likes of Sky making big money from those who do not attend games.

Whilst in today's game we have to accept that fixtures have to be changed to accomodate TV, there are some changes that are a step too far and this is one of them.

Photo: Action Images

SalisburySaint added 12:12 - Oct 11 Whichever games are re-scheduled are due to be announced tomorrow
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BiscuitSaint added 12:19 - Oct 11 I agree. A step too far. What's next.... a Christmas Day game? Let's leave Christmas Eve alone.
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leighsaint added 14:43 - Oct 11 Due to my health and age I know longer attend many games certainly not away games. I must admit that I watch many games on TV but Christmas Eve is a step to far. Football has become a slave to the money of TV. It's time to stop all this live games or it will become the western tv of the past, we used to have a western on nearly every night. Most games are not worth watching now including Saints games, nearly all frightened to lose more defending than attaching no excitement anymore

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skiptonsaint added 15:35 - Oct 11 Depends on the fixture for me. No way can they do a Saints Newcastle but a Saints London game on the lunchtime is not too bad as long as the trains are ok. Also if a team has a bad fixture like this then they should get an easier fixture on sat New Year's Day for the the fans. But easy for me to say as I mainly do northern away games
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NewburySaint added 21:12 - Oct 11 Although I am thoroughly in the no camp on this I don’t remember there being “uproar” 2 seasons ago when we kicked off at the most ridiculous time of 19:45 on Boxing Day-I know it was Arsenal that we played then but has the fact the Premier League are rethinking this got to be put down to whom they were looking playing this fixture, particularly Liverpool, come in to it because nobody seemed to be too worried 2 years ago, except us supporters that were actually going to our Boxing Day game?!

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SaintBrock added 16:06 - Oct 13 Totally with leighsaint on this one. I have nothing but contempt for a company that has scooped all the cream off free-to-air-TV and gave nothing back in return, especially as it is the legions of ordinary decent working blokes of limited means who have lost their right to see Football, F1, Cricket, Golf, the Boat Race, the Derby, the Grand National for free. Now the buggers are trying to take over Christmas! What is left that holds any interest for most folk? F. All is the answer unless you consider Strictly as a sport! The good thing is that football has become so abysmally dull that only a fully certifiable Loon would want to watch a match on TV these days that didn't involve his own club and that happens very rarely for Saints.

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