Saturday 3 pm kick offs could be a thing of the past

The Premier League have relaxed regulations with the agreement of football authorities forbidding the broadcast of football games in the UK on Saturday afternoon but they didn’t need to bother.

Only six of the ninety-two remaining fixtures will be played on Saturday at 3 pm!

The Saturday 3 pm ban came about due to one outspoken club owner in the 1960s, Bob Lord, the former chairman of Burnley FC, persuaded the then chairmen of the other Football League clubs that if they blacked out televised football during the middle of the day, it would force fans to go out to see games in person instead of staying home and watching on TV. That was enough to convince the league to impose a blackout on televised football between 2.45 pm and 5.15 pm on Saturdays which still stood before the current health crisis.

With 92 different dates and kick-off times to complete the Premier League, the danger is that broadcasters and supporters get used to that and not want to revert back.

We could see very few games being played on Saturdays at 3 pm again even when supporters return to stadia if broadcasters get their own way.

Premier League football may have changed forever with Saturday 3 pm being a distant memory!