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Boxing Day football could be so much more

By on December 18, 2014

Boxing Day football has been around just as long as the sport has has itself. Even today, the Boxing Day matches draws more viewers than ever, and is one of the three glorious days of the season, along with New Years Day and the final day of the season, in which all twenty Premier League team plays. It’s non-stop football, it is the football fan’s dream, yet in recent times it seems the old spirit has been taken out of it. At least, on the footballing side of it.

The way the Premier League is scheduled, there is nothing abnormal about the Boxing Day fixtures, except that everybody plays on the same day. That, however, isn’t how it has always been. Until 1957 each side had a double header – one on Christmas Day and the other on Boxing Day. And during those early days, the games were all local derbies to lessen travel over the holidays. But in that, without knowing, they may have hit something there, back in the good old non-commercialized English football. Boxing Day football, and every match is a derby.

Think of it. Manchester United V Manchester City; Liverpool V Everton; Arsenal V Tottenham Hotspur; Chelsea V Fulham; Aston Villa V West Bromwich Albion; Newcastle United V Sunderland, all on the same day. It seems the main opposition to this tradition at the moment would be television broadcasters – hosting all the same matches at the same time would have the ratings for each. But there are ways around that.

Why not, for once, hold all the matches at different points throughout the day? Understandably, the matches are all scheduled the way they are – at either 12:45, 3:00, or 7:30 – due to transport issues, but if they are all local derbies than that is taken care of as well. Anyway, Spain does it, and they seem to be onto something over there, with El Clasico being the most televised league fixture in the world. So why not? It does no harm for ratings – oh boy, the broadcasters would be salivating at being able to build up such an incredible “marathon” of football – and it would hardly leave the rest of the year bare boned with no big matches left, yet would leave for a fans heaven. We could rejuvenate the Boxing Day Spirit of old.

After all, the statistics show how on-and-off the Boxing Day football entertainment has been over the past few seasons. This year, there will be no big derbies, not even big title deciders. For four of the last five seasons, Boxing Day has averaged a considerably less goals per game tally than throughout the rest of the Premier League season. In 2011/2012, Boxing Day games averaged 1.2 goals per game, while the entire season as a whole averaged 2.5. The season prior, the gap was even bigger. Last season was a rare break back into some good football – nearly three goals per game were scored on Boxing Day. And while big matches don’t necessarily correlate with high scoring ones, considering we have had neither leaves Boxing Day currently a bit overhyped, at least as much as a full day of ten Premier League matches can be. It could, even realistically, be so much more.

Would you like to see a Boxing Day extravaganza of derbies? Comment below!

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.