The Premier League has never been shy about making truly bizarre decisions, but Manchester City’s latest fixture schedule is an absolute mess.
Manchester City are still fighting on three different fronts as they aim to win an unprecedented back-to-back treble.
Pep Guardiola has repeatedly spoken down the possibility of City winning all three major trophies again, putting his side’s chances at 0.01 per cent.
Thanks to the Premier League’s scheduling, those chances might have just got even lower.
The league announced its latest spate of fixture rearrangements on Saturday morning, announcing which games are to be televised and when those postponed due to FA Cup semi-final involvement will instead take place.
It does not make for pretty reading for fans and Guardiola is bound to be fuming.
City’s April fixture list
The chaos begins on Saturday, April 20, with the FA actually to blame on this occasion.
City will compete in the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea, who have drawn with them twice so far, at Wembley that day.
That’s despite the fact the Blues will face Real Madrid in a gruelling Champions League quarter-final second leg just three days earlier.
There’s no reason at all why the semi couldn’t have been on the Sunday, with Manchester United v Coventry City on the Saturday, instead.
But there’s worse to come. City should be playing Brighton in the league that weekend but that has initially been moved to Thursday, April 25 to be shown on Sky Sports.
However, should City advance past Madrid, it will have to be moved forward a day to Wednesday, April 24.
The exact same thing will happen the proceeding weekend, too, with City scheduled to face Nottingham Forest on Sunday, April 28.
But it will be brought forward to the Saturday should City qualify for the Champions League semi-finals.
An absolute mess
This fixture schedule is nothing but a joke. An absolute mess that will anger City as they won’t be able to set their preparations in stone and shows continued contempt for supporters.
Both City’s games against Brighton and Forest are away, meaning fans cannot make solid travel arrangements for the trips until a week before the fixtures are confirmed or risk the timings being changed.
In a cost-of-living crisis in which travel is already extortionate, not many people can afford that.
There is no reason why both games can’t just be held on Wednesday and Saturday regardless of City’s participation in Europe instead of the rigamarole the Premier League has put forward.
