Major changes to English football schedules | The World Game

The Premier League will begin one month later than usual because of the July finish to its delayed 2019-20 campaign, and the UEFA competitions continuing to August 23.

Replays in the FA Cup have been scrapped “to assist in easing pressure” on the tight program, the Football Association said on Thursday.

In the English League Cup, two-leg semi-finals have been replaced by a single match in January.

Also, the first four rounds are scheduled to take place on consecutive weeks in September.

None of the traditional midweek dates are available in October and November which are given entirely to UEFA’s club and national-team competitions.

That means the Premier League which kicks off on September 12 will have no mid-week games until December 15-16 – after the Champions League and Europa League group stages end.

Premier League teams will enter the League Cup in the second or third round in September, depending on if they are due to play in a European competition.

Tottenham will play in Europa League qualifying in September.

Manchester City are still involved in the Champions League and Manchester United have advanced to the Europa league semi-finals.

Teams will get a brief mid-season break in January instead of February, and the final Premier League round of fixtures will be on May 23.

That’s the last available date for domestic leagues before the UEFA club competition finals and call-ups for many players to national duty for the 24-team European Championship postponed from 2020.

Next season’s FA Cup is scheduled to begin on September 1 – only a month after the 2020 final – with the showpiece match at Wembley set to take place on May 15, 2021.

The FA added that the prize fund would return to 2017-18 levels because of the financial impact of the coronavirus outbreak after two seasons of record payment levels – with the winners to receive £1.8 million ($A3.3m).