When Brighton play a home fixture..

[Ken Newbury]

This bit is an extract from that article - now I assume Ken Brown knows about this and receives the questionaire?

"The Football League, for example, sends out a questionnaire to all their clubs in March. This is a club's opportunity to request specific dates they would like to avoid and what other team they would like to be paired with. The questionnaire is jointly signed off by the police and also reflects their concerns - issues such as ensuring high-profile matches do not clash with big events in a city"

Mmmm now let me think, er Bonfire Night in Lewes, er The University Freshers weekend.

Nope, he can't have got the qustionaire otherwise he surely would have put these two down? Or perhaps the form was too complicated for him!

 

[PC BHA]

Little bit unfair Mr Newbury!

We sit down with the club in April (yes before the finish of the season) and go through the form sent by the football league. At their request it is sent back to them signed off by the club and the police on a date normally around mid April. This form asks a number of questions which include which weekday would the club prefer midweek fixtures, any clubs they wished to be paired with, any clubs they would prefer to avoid bank holiday weekends and any police requests for high profile fixtures to be played on (weekend or midweek).

BHA requested dates to avoid clash with the uni and we requested no game on Nov 5th due to Lewes. The football league will only take so much into account and then they request the clubs negotiate with the opposition and / or the police. Both were the case with bonfire night and the University celebrations.

We requested being paired with Crawley as it was the unknown. Certain clubs in league 2 bring large support and being the first year at the Amex we wanted to ensure we were able to police both clubs if required. Crawley and Brighton were happy with this and for those fans who do like to go to both it works well.

 

[wehatepalace]

Well that clears that up then, the pairing with Crawley was largely down to policing then.

 

[Ken Newbury]

I stand corrected PC BHA

 

[Not Andy Naylor]

It's nothing to do with the Police. Each club has to say which club they'd like to be paired with before the fixtures are arranged.

Correct. I've done a couple of interviews with the guy who does the fixtures for the Premier League and Football League, but not the Blue Square (which is why Lewes often clashed with Albion when they were in the Conference). He told me that once Wycombe requested Reading, Reading requested Oxford, and Oxford requested Wycombe. There are similar problems with Plymouth, Torquay and Exeter. When all three clubs in this sort of situation are in the same division is when things get complex. Normally Arsenal and West Ham are both paired with Tottenham, so would be at home when Tottenham were away etc. But until last season, they had to play each other at least twice, so a set of fixtures with different pairings had to be devised. And that had a knock-on effect on Orient, Southend, everyone out as far as Norwich. This season, the same thing happens with Chelsea, Fulham and QPR. He said it was like doing a Rubik's Cube with 92 faces. And Alex Ferguson will always complain no matter what.

Meet Fergusons foe: the fixture list planner - Premier League - Football - The Independent

 

[Carrot Cruncher]

Fortuna Dusseldorf. Trying to organise a weekend over there early next year and all their home fixtures clash with ours.