[Football] Luton's first home Premier League game postponed

[Eeyore]

Clashes with Pride.

Oh, wait…

29th July in Burnley

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Are Burnley in their rights here to say "so what" - play it somewhere else then? No rule to say a home game has to be at your home ground. You should be able to fulfil fixtures as a minumum rule in the premier league.

If I was the Burnley chairman I'd be saying that. Harking back to Middlesborough running out of players in the 90s and getting docked 3 points when they could have played 17year old kids from the youth team and got 0 points and stayed up. Enough grounds in London they can play at.

Is it not a fundamental thing that if youre playing in the premier league, your stadium should be ready for it?

Odd thing to hear from a Brighton fan given our history at Gillingham.

 

[Heart and Soul]

Is it not a fundamental thing that if youre playing in the premier league, your stadium should be ready for it?

It is not difficult to see a future where the Arab-American leadership of the Premier League tighten the rules and make sure that no plucky team like Luton are able to get into the Premier League, keeping it a sanitised affair between teams from affluent cities and with billionaire owners. Until then I suppose we have to reluctantly accept that the PL and the EFL are trying to help clubs through giving them special permits to play in suboptimal stadiums in the Premier League, or perhaps some old athletics stadium in the EFL in case they have no other stadium to go to.

 

[nickbrighton]

im surprised at some of the entitlement on here- Luton deserve their place in the premier league. Its great to see some of the smaller clubs get their chance. Plenty of people were saying we shouldn't be in the prem, and wanted us relegated asap, It seems memories of Withdean are fading.

Lots of people were saying the ground wouldnt be ready for the start of the season, so its no surprise. Even our "Premier League Ready" stadium needed best part of £8 million to upgrade.

Would it have been prudent to have planned for Luton to have played their first games away? Possibly, but Luton fans want and deserve to see Prem football at home ASAP.

Rather than belittle a club thats climbed from non league to the top, - we should be happy for them

 

[Nobby Cybergoat]

im surprised at some of the entitlement on here- Luton deserve their place in the premier league. Its great to see some of the smaller clubs get their chance. Plenty of people were saying we shouldn't be in the prem, and wanted us relegated asap, It seems memories of Withdean are fading.

Lots of people were saying the ground wouldnt be ready for the start of the season, so its no surprise. Even our "Premier League Ready" stadium needed best part of £8 million to upgrade.

Would it have been prudent to have planned for Luton to have played their first games away? Possibly, but Luton fans want and deserve to see Prem football at home ASAP.

Rather than belittle a club thats climbed from non league to the top, - we should be happy for them

Spot on.

A few who've forgotten where we came from.

 

[Stat Brother]

im surprised at some of the entitlement on here- Luton deserve their place in the premier league. Its great to see some of the smaller clubs get their chance. Plenty of people were saying we shouldn't be in the prem, and wanted us relegated asap, It seems memories of Withdean are fading.

Lots of people were saying the ground wouldnt be ready for the start of the season, so its no surprise. Even our "Premier League Ready" stadium needed best part of £8 million to upgrade.

Would it have been prudent to have planned for Luton to have played their first games away? Possibly, but Luton fans want and deserve to see Prem football at home ASAP.

Rather than belittle a club thats climbed from non league to the top, - we should be happy for them

It ain't rocket science and such a shame that needs to be said.

 

[Easy 10]

Still think the sensible option would've been to pencil in a couple of games at MK Dongs while they get KR up to scratch, it was always going to be a massively tight schedule.

 

[ElectricNaz]

Odd thing to hear from a Brighton fan given our history at Gillingham.

Moot point. We were nowhere near the PL then. And if we got there back then, I'm sure we would have then moved into Pompey or Saints for a bit. Not just said "hang on, wait for us to build a new stand/stadium" or whatever.

What I'm saying is, if Luton haven't got a fit for purpose ground to fit in with the rules (rules which I'm sure were defined a long time before they even reached the playoffs for the first time), go play at Fulham or Chelsea or Milton Keynes or something for one or two games. Not saying relegate them or promote someone else. Just make them play somewhere else. Rather than postpone games and negatively impact other teams, in this case Burnley who have done nothing wrong.

Or alternative view, relax the rules. Newcastle have got away with their away end bull for years now.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Moot point. We were nowhere near the PL then. And if we got there back then, I'm sure we would have then moved into Pompey or Saints for a bit. Not just said "hang on, wait for us to build a new stand/stadium" or whatever.

What I'm saying is, if Luton haven't got a fit for purpose ground to fit in with the rules (rules which I'm sure were defined a long time before they even reached the playoffs for the first time), go play at Fulham or Chelsea or Milton Keynes or something for one or two games. Not saying relegate them or promote someone else. Just make them play somewhere else. Rather than postpone games and negatively impact other teams, in this case Burnley who have done nothing wrong.

Or alternative view, relax the rules. Newcastle have got away with their away end bull for years now.

Games are postponed for all sorts of reasons eg cup runs. I don’t think it’s much of an inconvenience. We have to put up with international weekends as well. Were temporary ground shares practical or even offered ? If so then maybe it would have made sense but imo Luton are entitled to the home advantage they will have at KR. Good luck to them and as a Brighton fan I empathizes with their ground issues even if the cause is different. Don’t give a f*** about the PL.

 

[Sheebo]

Blackburn are at home

I’ve read this on the Luton forum I glanced at just now too. Are Blackburn and Burnley really not allowed to play on the same day? Seems mental that - not like it’s the same city - perhaps @dsr-burnley can confirm?

 

[HangletonGull]

I’ve read this on the Luton forum I glanced at just now too. Are Blackburn and Burnley really not allowed to play on the same day? Seems mental that - not like it’s the same city - perhaps @dsr-burnley can confirm?

Yes

 

[Colonel Mustard]

I can’t stand Luton (town and club). Never liked them. But I'm not comfortable with the tone of some of these comments. I well remember my brother in law (Charlton fan) ridiculing me when we went to see a game at the Falmer stadium. "There but for the grace of god…" etc.

 

[Bozza]

im surprised at some of the entitlement on here- Luton deserve their place in the premier league. Its great to see some of the smaller clubs get their chance. Plenty of people were saying we shouldn't be in the prem, and wanted us relegated asap, It seems memories of Withdean are fading.

Lots of people were saying the ground wouldnt be ready for the start of the season, so its no surprise. Even our "Premier League Ready" stadium needed best part of £8 million to upgrade.

Would it have been prudent to have planned for Luton to have played their first games away? Possibly, but Luton fans want and deserve to see Prem football at home ASAP.

Rather than belittle a club thats climbed from non league to the top, - we should be happy for them

Just in case you're including my opening post in that assessment, my tongue was so firmly in my cheek (ie I was joking) that I didn't feel the need to add a smilie to ensure that sentiment was correctly interpreted by all readers.

Of course Luton deserve their place in the Premier League and of course they shouldn't be relegated for not having their ground quite ready given the scale of the work they've been required to undertake.

Relegation can wait until March/April time when they've stunk the league out and can return back from whence they came*.



* - that's a joke too.

 

[Coxovi]

I've played that game as a Project Manager in previous roles. "It's on track but we can't afford any more delays"

Miles behind.

Otherwise known as the « you make the call for delaying the project, I am only flagging the risk » strategy.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Just relegate them now and be done with it?

​

Luton Town's first home game back in the top flight has been postponed after the club could not assure the Premier League and opponents Burnley that improvement works at Kenilworth Road would be completed in time.​

​

Work is being carried out to meet Premier League standards following promotion from the Championship.​

​

It means the Saturday, 19 August fixture will have to be rearranged.​

Luton Town: Club's first Premier League home game postponed over stadium uncertainty

Luton Town's first Premier League home game is postponed with the club unable to guarantee improvement works at Kenilworth Road would be completed in time.

www.bbc.co.uk

Why couldn't the Premier League scheduled away games only for the first month?
They did with West Ham, when their stadium was being used for athletics.

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

I can’t stand Luton (town and club). Never liked them. But I'm not comfortable with the tone of some of these comments. I well remember my brother in law (Charlton fan) ridiculing me when we went to see a game at the Falmer stadium. "There but for the grace of god…" etc.

Why did he ridicule a brand new, state of the art, award winning stadium? I can understand it if it was Withdean but is he a bit thick?

 

[Telboy]

Why don't The Premier League reverse the fixture?

 

[dsr-burnley]

I’ve read this on the Luton forum I glanced at just now too. Are Blackburn and Burnley really not allowed to play on the same day? Seems mental that - not like it’s the same city - perhaps @dsr-burnley can confirm?

I'm not aware of any rule that says we can't. It virtually never happens, because the league has a system whereby all clubs can request another club that they won't clash with, and if both clubs request not to clash with each other, like Liverpool-Everton or Burnley-Blackburn, then their league games never clash (barring postponements).

Liverpool-Everton of course will not clash because the police won't allow it, but Burnley and Blackburn are two of 7 league clubs in the Lancashire police area, and Preston and Blackpool are of similar size to Blackburn, so manpower isn't an issue.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Games are postponed for all sorts of reasons eg cup runs. I don’t think it’s much of an inconvenience.

Quite.

And a game postponed so early in the season has plenty of time and options for it to be re-arranged.

I'm struggling to get my head around some of the attitude towards Luton.

 

[Badger Boy]

Why don't The Premier League reverse the fixture?

Pretty sure that was requested, but Burnley had said no. I'm sure I did read the reasons why but I can't recall now - I think the clubs have to agree on that sort of thing.