ANFIELD DERBY KICK OFF SWITCH

[alan ball]

The Merseyside derby at Anfield in February has switched to a lunchtime kick-off.

The match, which takes place on Saturday, 25 February, is now a 12.45pm kick off and will be shown live on Sky Sports.

It was previously scheduled for a standard 3pm kick off.

But the fixture will be postponed should Liverpool overcome Manchester City and reach the Carling Cup final, which is also that weekend.

 

[The Equaliser]

FFS will they ever play this game at the normal time ever again ? Seems not.

 

[Mvflusk]

We all know the reasons and until we stop pretending it doesn't exist it'll continue to be 12.45s.

 

[Deleted member 28206]

We all know the reasons and until we stop pretending it doesn't exist it'll continue to be 12.45s.

Care to expand? Is it over the fighting?

 

[paulbefc]

We all know the reasons and until we stop pretending it doesn't exist it'll continue to be 12.45s.

I'm not sure I do tbh mate, do tell...

If it's drunken violence, getting a couple hours earlier isn't going to stop criminals.

 

[davek]

I'm glad, tbh. Early KOs tend to take out the atmosphere generated by the home support.

 

[Baines' left foot]

At least it's on TV now.

 

[Brennan]

I'm not sure I do tbh mate, do tell...

If it's drunken violence, getting a couple hours earlier isn't going to stop criminals.

I'd say it's because at that time of year leaving the stadium at 5 you're heading into darkness. That in itself makes the chance of trouble more likely, because it's hard enough to control 40,000 odd fans during daylight hours. The derbies tend to happen between October and February. Also, even though many do still drink before an early kick off i'm certain that noticeably less people drink as much.

A game kicking out at 5pm also has the added complication of traffic problems and more people on the street getting out of work around that time. The less people on the street the better.

 

[The Equaliser]

It's purely for Sky TV Far East viewing figures AFAIK. The only game moved due to possible trouble is the Utd game which kicks off at noon.

 

[Azzurri]

It's probably for other reasons, there's never really much trouble at the derby. More trouble when either of the Manchester teams comes to Merseyside.

 

[EFC NY]

If its anything like the States, tv and only tv dictates the starting time. No one cares about fan safety or convienence.

For Yank fans, this is good news, because this means that the game will certainly be on live, as that time slot is usually shown live on ESPN2. Can watch the game live at 7:30 am, than get on with my day. But to be fair, nearly every Everton league fixture is shown here (live or delay) anyway.

 

[Frank Drebin]

This just means my day will be ruined slightly earlier than usual.

 

[Alan Whittle]

But the fixture will be postponed should Liverpool overcome Manchester City and reach the Carling Cup final, which is also that weekend.

Well, at least that means one of us will beat the RS that weekend.