On Tuesday afternoon it was confirmed that Southampton’s St Mary’s Stadium hosting of Chelsea would move following the announcements of the latest television picks.
📆#SaintsFC's home clash with #CFC in October has been moved for live TV broadcast: https://t.co/FoxlpqC1E7
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) August 7, 2018
The game was originally set for Saturday, October 6 and will now take place 24 hours later on Sunday, October 7 with a 2.13pm kick-off time.
The match has been picked for screening by Sky Sports.
Football fans always moan when fixtures get bounced around for television coverage but unfortunately it’s the game we now live in. This one is slightly different though as Chelsea have a European game scheduled for the previous Thursday, so this clash was always going to be bounced.
The benefit is being bounced and selected for television coverage, we get a healthy cash boost owing to the facility fees in place for live games.
You take the silver lining where you can sometimes in the modern game and that will certainly help, and it wasn’t lost on a few fans as they took to social media to react to the news.
I'm going to moan regardless. Not everyone is a Monday to Friday worker and we need to plan well in advance or take leave to get to games.
— JAMES ???????????? ???????????????????????????? ???????? (@JHG1973) August 7, 2018
Not another game moved
— Paul Smith (@saintsmith80) August 7, 2018
Interesting kick off time ???? what about Bournemouth away if that’s been announced
— Sammy B (@sammysfcb) August 7, 2018
it was always gonna be on a Sunday anyway because Chelsea are in the Europa league
— Connor (@iiConzzy) August 7, 2018
That’s true did forget that in fairness
— Graham (@graham_g4ry5) August 7, 2018
The obvious question that comes from this though is so many games get moved when they always naturally had to be moved, so why isn’t this factored in when fixtures themselves are announced. Fans can’t be expected to keep track of a full fixture calendar including games abroad before they plan their football season in advance and this is one thing that could be easily handled by those in charge.