One of the biggest fixtures in English and world football is coming up this weekend in the Manchester derby.
Manchester United and Manchester City, two of the biggest sides in the land will lock horns at Old Trafford in a match that so often brings incredible drama and plenty of goals.
It’s also one of the Premier League fixtures that almost always commands a stand-alone kick-off slot. All attention will be on the Manchester derby come Sunday, but not at a kick-off time many football fans recognise as the norm.
Here’s why the Manchester derby is kicking off at an unusual time.
This is the first time the two Manchester sides have faced off since the FA Cup final at Wembley in June 2023. That match went the way of Pep Guardiola’s Man City as they won 2-1 in a game that only ever seemed to be going in one direction.
The Premier League points between the two sides were shared last season, with Man City winning 6-3 at the Etihad before Man Utd triumphed 2-1 at Old Trafford later in the campaign. The Man Utd win kicked off at 12:30 on a Saturday, but that won’t be the case this weekend.
This time, on the same day the clocks go back in the United Kingdom, the derby will get underway at 15:30 GMT. Sundays in the Premier League usually consist of one fixture or more at 14:00 and then a 16:30 match.
A game the size of the Manchester derby would usually be lined up for the 16:30 slot.
The decision was made after discussions between the two clubs, local authorities and broadcasters Sky Sports.
Man Utd released a statement which said: “The derby with Manchester City will be staged towards the end of the month, with the Old Trafford encounter being moved to 29 October, kicking off at 3.30pm. The fixture, which we won 2-1 last season with Marcus Rashford netting a memorable winner, is to be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK. The unusual start time was agreed following consultation between the clubs, the broadcaster and local authorities.”
The most common reason for a derby to be rescheduled is the involvement of one or both teams in another competition in the coming days, but there are no immediate matches coming up that would require a change of just one hour.
Another reason can be a local event or gathering in the area. Having had a look around, we can see there is a Fall Out Boy concert at the AO Arena in central Manchester which sees doors open at 19:30. Were the game to begin at 16:30, there would likely be a clash of large crowds arriving in the city centre which local authorities may want to avoid.
There is no official word on whether that is the case or not, but were there to be a very serious reason to create an unusual kick-off slot, that would normally be communicated to fans with more details than Man Utd’s statement.
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