Sam Allardyce has accused the Premier League of putting players’ health at risk and devaluing the FA Cup by staging a full programme of fixtures next Tuesday and Wednesday. In a fierce attack Sunderland’s manager described the scheduling as “diabolical” and said the league was “destroying” the game. He is convinced many top-tier clubs will field weakened teams in this weekend’s third-round ties to preserve fatigued players for matches a few days later.
“Of course I’m going to make changes for our Cup tie at Arsenal on Saturday,” said Allardyce, who believes the glut of matches in late December and early January makes footballers more vulnerable to potentially serious injury. “If the Premier League decides to put a stupid fixture midweek when they don’t bloody need to, then I haven’t got much choice.
“It’s diabolical. We’re flogging the lads. There are more and more injuries every year but it’s completely ignored by the Premier League.  It’s unbelievable. If you want us to respect the FA Cup, don’t put Premier League fixtures in the midweek just after new year. Don’t give me stick when I change the side at Arsenal. Give the Premier League stick, not the managers.”
He is further aggrieved by the league having agreed to a request from Swansea to move their game against Sunderland at the Liberty Stadium from next Tuesday, 12 January, to the following day.
Whereas this offers Swansea an extra day to recover from a Cup tie at Oxford on Sunday it reduces Sunderland’s rest period before another league game at Tottenham on Saturday lunchtime.
Allardyce believes the decision could jeopardise his side’s survival chances. “Making me play Wednesday and Saturday rather than Tuesday and Saturday is making it harder for me to get Premier League points,” he said. “With having three away games in succession we’ve got around 2,000 miles of travel and the lunchtime kick-off means we’ve less than three days recovery for Tottenham.”
Swansea had the game switched on the grounds they needed more than 48 hours to recover from their Cup trip. “Swansea probably won’t play their best team at Oxford, they’re likely to make changes,” Allardyce countered. “But I’m not annoyed with Swansea, I’m annoyed with the Premier League.”
There is a suspicion that a round of midweek games at a time when the rest of Europe is on a winter break suits Premier League executives nicely because of its particular appeal to overseas broadcasters offering lucrative television rights packages.
 “It would be very sad if the Premier League had put in midweek fixtures next week for that reason, because we get enough money as it is,” Allardyce said. “How much more money do we need, for God’s sake? It’s a game to be enjoyed, not a game to be destroyed and we destroy the game by asking the players to do too much in this period.  The Premier League have the facts, they’ve had them for years. The game gets ever quicker, you get more and more injuries in this period and everybody at that level just ignores it.”
Sunderland have complained to the Premier League about the Swansea game’s rescheduling but the protest fell on deaf ears. “They’ve described our complaint as frivolous,” Allardyce said. “They don’t look at the facts properly. To dismiss our appeal was totally and utterly wrong by Mr Scudamore [the Premier League’s chief executive].  Richard Scudamore has my number and he can ring me up any time he wants to tell me why he agreed the change. But he won’t call.”
Allardyce is also cynical about an offer from Swansea to compensate around 300 Sunderland fans who had booked trips to Wales before the date change. “The Premier League told the fans they’ll get their expenses back,” said Allardyce. “But what a load of bollocks. I’m concerned with the fans who have booked their travel up and spent their money; will they get all of that back or won’t they?”
Anxious not to become embroiled in a slanging match with Sunderland’s manager, the Premier League declined to respond to Allardyce’s comments but it has confirmed Swansea have guaranteed to cover non-refundable travel and accommodation costs incurred by away supporters who booked in advance of the game being put back. Ticket outlay will also be covered for anyone no longer able to attend.
If it is not uncommon for midweek league games to be rearranged in instances when one club has had a Sunday Cup tie, it remains relatively rare for there to be a top-flight Tuesday/Wednesday programme immediately after the FA Cup’s third round - the last time this happened was in 2004.
This season the pressures of a congested domestic and European programme before Euro 2016 are understood to have made its presence unavoidable by fixture compilers.