Kickin' Back For Christmas: The Story Behind Football's Christmas Day Timeout
Since 1965, there hasn't been a football game played on Christmas Day, here's why....
Merry Christmas!
Once upon a time, football matches on Christmas Day were a common thing. The last football match played on Christmas Day was a 4-2 win for Blackpool against Blackburn Rovers in 1965. Christmas Day is a day when many people prefer to spend time with their families and loved ones including players, coaches and staff. Instead of scheduling matches on Christmas Day, The Premier League decided to schedule matches for Boxing Day instead, which is a Christmas tradition all football fans look forward to.
One of the main challenges to matches being played on Christmas Day is the limited public transport. It is extremely difficult for fans to get to stadiums during the Christmas period. The 2023 clash between Wolves and Chelsea caused controversy for being scheduled on Christmas Eve mainly for this reason. Fans claimed to have been treated as customers rather than supporters as no consideration was made for their travel arrangements.
London to Wolverhampton is an approximate 250-mile round trip, but few public transport services are running on Christmas Eve due to regular suspensions over the festive period and strikes. Chelsea fans in particular made their unhappiness unknown to the Premier League, with the Chelsea Supporters’ Trust launching a #GetStuffed protest campaign. Their protest caught the attention of Premier League bosses, who have announced there will be no matches played on Christmas Eve next year.
If Christmas Eve caused so much uproar imagine if it was on Christmas Day! The best known Christmas Day football game was in 1914 when thousands of soldiers on the Western Front, near the French-Belgian border, participated in a temporary truce in no man’s land, which included a number of spontaneous games. The following day they went back to fighting one another, but the fact that for even one day hostilities ceased is often seen as an example of football’s enduring power.
Football fans are creatures of habit, and in English football there is now perhaps no greater habit in the calendar than Boxing Day football. December 26 is the day when you make your way down to the stadium or you enjoy a match from the comfort of your home with some leftover Christmas dinner.
Although there’s no appetite for football on Christmas Day. It seems like over in the US there’s a huge appetite for sports like basketball and American football on Christmas Day. The Christmas Day slate is a huge source of entertainment for many Americans and players even find it an honour to play on Christmas Day as they are playing in front of a huge crowd in the stadium but also at home.
In the NBA, Christmas Day is an important day for games because television ratings are generally higher. The NBA on Christmas Day is a global event televised in more than 200 countries and territories, and in more than 40 languages. Thus, once again this year, the NBA has scheduled a slate of five games scattered throughout Christmas Day. In the NFL, six teams are scheduled to play today on Christmas Day. This is the 76th year in a row where the NBA have brought teams together to compete on Christmas Day.
Unlike the UK who have huge public transport issues on public holidays like Christmas, a lot of American fans drive to these stadiums that have huge parking sites. This means that there are no empty seats at these Christmas Day fixtures and no complaints by fans either.
Christmas Day is a day to be spent with family and friends. It is quite sad that these professional athletes have to miss out on spending Christmas with their families and friends in order to maximise the leagues revenue. On the contrary, these are all well established Christmas customs that bring fans together to support their favourite team whether that’s in football, basketball or American football. Do you think there should be football fixtures on Christmas Day or a break during the Christmas period? Let us know what you think.
Have a great Christmas!