The
2020/21 Premier League season will start just six weeks after the previous
one finished. Here's what we know so far...
When does the 2020/21 Premier League
season start?
The Premier League has revealed the 2020/21 season will start on Saturday
September 12.
The 29th campaign was originally due to begin on August 8 but coronavirus
has impacted the football calendar; the new season will commence just six
weeks after the 2019/20 one will have finished.
Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Wolves could be given extra
time off by the Premier League having reached at least the quarter-final
stage of European competition.
When will the 2020/21 Premier League
season finish?
The season is scheduled to finish on Sunday May 23, 2021 - just 19 days
before the rescheduled Euro 2020 kicks off.
When will the fixtures be announced?
The full fixture schedule, the Premier League says, will be released no
later than Friday August 21.
Initial broadcast selections will follow, along with dates for subsequent
fixture amendments throughout the season.
The Premier League has, however, released the dates for each matchweek.
Matchweek 1: Saturday September 12
Matchweek 2: Saturday September 19
Matchweek 3: Saturday September 26
Matchweek 4: Saturday October 3
Matchweek 5: Saturday October 17
Matchweek 6: Saturday October 24
Matchweek 7: Saturday October 31
Matchweek 8: Saturday November 7
Matchweek 9: Saturday November 21
Matchweek 10: Saturday November 28
Matchweek 11: Saturday December 5
Matchweek 12: Saturday December 12
Matchweek 13: Wednesday December 16
Matchweek 14: Saturday December 19
Matchweek 15: Saturday December 26
Matchweek 16: Monday December 28
Matchweek 17: Saturday January 2
Matchweek 18a: Wednesday January 13
Matchweek 19: Saturday January 16
Matchweek 18b: Wednesday January 20
Matchweek 20: Saturday January 23
Matchweek 21: Saturday January 30
Matchweek 22: Wednesday February 3
Matchweek 23: Saturday February 6
Matchweek 24: Saturday February 13
Matchweek 25: Saturday February 20
Matchweek 26: Saturday February 27
Matchweek 27: Saturday March 6
Matchweek 28: Saturday March 13
Matchweek 29: Saturday March 20
Matchweek 30: Saturday April 3
Matchweek 31: Saturday April 10
Matchweek 32: Saturday April 17
Matchweek 33: Saturday April 24
Matchweek 34: Saturday May 1
Matchweek 35: Saturday May 8
Matchweek 36: Wednesday May 12
Matchweek 37: Saturday May 15
Matchweek 38: Sunday May 23
Who's up, who's down?
Leeds are back in the Premier League after a 16-year absence, while West
Brom sealed the second automatic promotion spot after a topsy-turvy final
day of the Championship season.
Fulham will join them after beating Brentford in the play-off final at
Wembley.
Norwich made an immediate return to the second tier, with Watford and
Bournemouth relegated on the final day.
When will fans be allowed back?
The season will begin behind closed doors but some spectators could to
return to venues on a socially-distanced basis later in the year.
Clubs discussed bringing fans back to grounds at a Premier League meeting on
July 24.
Reports have suggested grounds may only initially be between 30 and 50 per
cent full and attendance at sporting events for the foreseeable future will
be subject to a number of strict conditions.
Bundesliga clubs have agreed a plan to allow fans back into stadiums,
potentially as early as the 2020-21 season-opener on Friday September 18,
though the final decision will be made by local politicians in each of the
country's 16 federal states. No away fans would be allowed in stadiums until
at least the end of 2020.
What will be new next season?
After adopting five substitutes in the Premier League, and nine players on
the bench, after the coronavirus restart in 2019/20 because of the sheer
number of games, it's back to normal for the new season after clubs voted in
favour of scrapping the new rule at their AGM on August 6.
PGMOL chief Mike Riley presented a VAR review to clubs in their July meeting
and at the AGM, it was agreed to implement the full FIFA VAR protocol,
introducing a number of new measures for the 2020/21 season.
The referee review area - the screen at the side of the pitch which often
drew criticism for its lack of use last season - will be used more for
subjective decisions over goals, red cards and penalties.
Any part of player's body that is on the ground when a penalty kick is taken
will be classed as encroachment. So if any part of the foot is on the
penalty area or arc line, it will be seen to be encroaching. The player must
still have a material impact on the outcome of the kick.
Assistant referees will be told to keep their flags down in the case of
marginal offside calls where a goalscoring opportunity is likely to follow
immediately, until the passage of play is completed.
Once the goal scoring opportunity is complete - either a goal is scored or
the chance is gone - they will then raise the flag to indicate the initial
offence. If a goal is scored, the VAR will then review the offside
judgement.
Penalties will no longer be automatically retaken if the goalkeeper
infringes in the build-up to a spot-kick. A goalkeeper's offence must
"clearly affect" the penalty-taker for a spot-kick to be retaken if missed.
In addition, Yellow cards will also no longer be carried into penalty
shoot-outs. So if a goalkeeper had previously received a yellow card in the
match and an infringement drew another yellow card, they would not be sent
off.
Meanwhile, plenty of clubs have released new kits for the forthcoming
campaign and Nike has released its new 'Flight' ball - one they said
addresses "inconsistent aerodynamics".
When is the transfer window?
The window will run for 10 weeks this summer.
It opened on Monday July 27 and will close on Monday October 5 at 11pm.
An additional domestic-only window will run from October 5 to 5pm on October
16 but Premier League clubs will only be able to trade with EFL clubs - for
either loans or permanent registrations - and will not be able to do
business with other Premier League clubs or clubs abroad.
Any other dates to mark in the diary?
The European competitions for 2019/20 are still to be concluded.
Champions League knockout games will be played in a 12-day condensed
tournament in Lisbon in from August 12-23, with Manchester City still in the
tournament. Next season's group stage will start on October 20/21, 2020.
Manchester United have reached the semi-finals of the Europa League, with a
knockout tournament taking place across four venues in Germany from August
10-21.
Next season's Europa League group stage will start on October 20, 2020.
Qualifying for next season's competition will begin on August 20, while
Tottenham will start their Europa League campaign in the second qualifying
round on September 17.
The Community Shield will take place at Wembley on Saturday August 29, the
FA has confirmed. The traditional curtain-raiser for the new season will see
Premier League champions Liverpool play Arsenal. The kick-off time for the
game will be announced at a later date.
The match will be immediately followed by an international break from
September 2 to 10.
The national team football windows of October and November 2020 will now
feature triple-headers instead of double-headers, allowing the postponed
European Qualifiers play-offs to be rescheduled at the beginning of the
respective windows, on October 8 and November 12.
The first four rounds of the Carabao Cup will be played in September, with
Premier League clubs joining at round two on September 15/16 and those who
are in European competition entering at round three a week later.
The FA Cup third round is scheduled for January 9 2021 - and replays have
been scrapped this season.
The 2020/21 UEFA Nations League group stage will take place on revised dates
in September, October and November.
Euro 2020 will now take place from June 11-July 11, 2021. The 12 original
host cities have been confirmed as venues for the rescheduled tournament.
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