Man City fans are already paying for missed Premier League deadline

Manchester City fans are waiting for a long away trip to be confirmed as the Premier League fails to meet its own deadline

Manchester City head to Arsenal in September but we still don't know when

The Premier League announced the first set of televised fixtures for the 2025/26 season this week and there were immediately grumbles from some supporters. Liverpool fans weren't best pleased with their trip to Newcastle moved to 8pm on a Bank Holiday Monday, while it will be an early start for Spurs supporters travelling up to the Etihad for a Saturday lunchtime.

Worse than any of that though was there there were a whole three rounds of fixtures that were completely missing. Having pledged three weeks earlier when the fixtures came out that July 8 would be the deadline for announcing broadcasting changes for the first six rounds of the season, on the day less than half of what was promised arrived.

In a statement announcing the changes for the rest of August, the Premier League said that the September selections would be announced "in due course". Whatever that means.

There's little point in announcing that you're going to be more transparent and publishing dates for when batches of fixtures will be announced, just to ignore the deadline and not even bother to give a fresh one. Whoever is more to blame doesn't really matter but the league and broadcasters have to take responsibility and do better because fans do not deserve to be treated this way.

For City fans, it means having to wait to find out what time and day their trip to Arsenal will be. Trains are different down to London and back on a Saturday and Sunday, as are hotels, and the longer the delay in confirming the fixture the more expensive it will get.

That is on top of the practical inconvenience though of supporters just not being able to plan what they're doing. Fans will have bookmarked July 8 from the moment that date was circled by the Premier League - just three weeks before it happened - and so it was a waste of their time that the first deadline of the season wasn't met - without even an apology.

There have been some important victories claimed by fans over the last 12 months, with away tickets capped again at £30. From a City perspective, reversing a parking tax for disabled supporters, getting season tickets frozen and significant reductions in matchday prices all help to make fans feel more valued.

However, the gains are undermined - in a situation where fans fear they are getting less and less - when basic courtesies are ignored and simple deadlines are missed. Fans now have to wait for an unspecified date for September's games to be announced before the next deadline of Wednesday August 20 for October games.

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