Away Boxing day fixture for fifth year running
Back in April, the London Stadium Safety Advisory Group (LS-SAG) discussed the possibility of a Boxing day home game in 2019 as to what challenges they could bring.
In a meeting in April South Eastern trains informed the safety group that due to major engineering works around the Christmas period there will not be any high-speed services on Boxing Day and this will have a huge effect on trains to London should there be a Boxing Day fixture at the London Stadium.
West Ham said do not have a view on Boxing Day games, however, they noted that from a fans point of view there is a feeling that games will never be played at the London Stadium on Boxing Day. This was categorically confirmed by Karen Brady that West Ham United would not want to be out of the draw for Boxing Day.
Met Police informed the safety group of the process for Boxing Day allocation involves West Ham putting in a pre-season fixture questionnaire and representations from the police based on intelligence which is submitted to the Premier League, then in June there is a fixtures meeting when fixtures are allocated by computer with further discussions had based on these allocations.
The fixture list is published at 9 am this morning.