Bring back "request fixture reschedule".

I can't remeber which year it was bu there was a CM/FM that gave you an option to request that the FA reschedule a match due to fixture congestion. Please bring it back.

As FC Bayern practically all my maches are shown on TV on a Sunday and this plays havoc with my CL preparations if I am scheduled to play on the Tuesday night. I sometimes struggle to field a fully fit team and have to resort to bit part players, it's great for squad rotation but has led to some embarrassing results in the CL as I focus on the league.

It's particularly bad when I have any sort of run in the cup as I can have upto 4 games a week. My records section currently reads 6 games without conceding between 20.09.07 and 02.10.07.

To compensate I field weak teams in the cup and treat it like the league cup but the board aren't too happy when I get dumped out by minnows.

I can't remeber which year it was bu there was a CM/FM that gave you an option to request that the FA reschedule a match due to fixture congestion. Please bring it back.

As FC Bayern practically all my maches are shown on TV on a Sunday and this plays havoc with my CL preparations if I am scheduled to play on the Tuesday night. I sometimes struggle to field a fully fit team and have to resort to bit part players, it's great for squad rotation but has led to some embarrassing results in the CL as I focus on the league.

It's particularly bad when I have any sort of run in the cup as I can have upto 4 games a week. My records section currently reads 6 games without conceding between 20.09.07 and 02.10.07.

To compensate I field weak teams in the cup and treat it like the league cup but the board aren't too happy when I get dumped out by minnows.

I agree.

As for your situation Nomis, have you considered turning off moving fixtures for TV in your preferences?

Good idea Chilliconcarnie, I didn't think of that.

I assume the notifications of matches picked for tv is an indication of the matches which have been moved.

If you want realism then that is the way it is. It is the same in many countries that a team plays on the Sunday and then again on the Tuesday. When exactly are you going to postpone a match to from the Sunday?

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by glamdring:

If you want realism then that is the way it is. It is the same in many countries that a team plays on the Sunday and then again on the Tuesday. When exactly are you going to postpone a match to from the Sunday? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Um, the Saturday as originally scheduled rather than the Sunday it was changed to.

As for realism, I can't remember the last time I heard about a team playing 6 games in 12 days that's a game every other day dunno what league you're watching but they must have huge squads.

Thw worst i've ever seen is I think 4 in 7 days for Arsenal a couple of seasons ago, but instances are very few and far between.

In my opinion, no team should have to play more than two games a week. Correct me if I'm wrong those of you who follow more worldwide football than I do, but I don't know of any real-world examples of teams playing even three times in a week.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by lovingthegreen:

In my opinion, no team should have to play more than two games a week. Correct me if I'm wrong those of you who follow more worldwide football than I do, but I don't know of any real-world examples of teams playing even three times in a week. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well on occasion Premier League teams can play PL Sunday, CL on Wednesday and PL again on Saturday so it does happen but there's 2 full rest days between each fixture so it isn't as bad as the game sometimes creates.

definately a good idea.

don't want to call this a bug, but my penultimate fixture of season 2008/9 was strangely rescheduled until after the final day of the season. no message in the media, no reason to do this, i was not in a cup final, nor were fulham or any of their last opponents.

i don't mind, it meant that i won the league by winning at fulham.

it's not happened since.

You can't "postpone" a game to the day earlier! Football clubs want TV money so they have to make sacrifices.

Your issue of playing 6 games in 12 days is a whole different kettle of fish to your example of just playing on a Sunday and again on Tuesday though.

I would like the option to request postponements personally too, but the former situation would never result in one.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Klimowicz:

definately a good idea.

don't want to call this a bug, but my penultimate fixture of season 2008/9 was strangely rescheduled until after the final day of the season. no message in the media, no reason to do this, i was not in a cup final, nor were fulham or any of their last opponents.

i don't mind, it meant that i won the league by winning at fulham.

it's not happened since. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

That used to happen regularly in previous FMs (dunno about the current one) in the SPL when Celtic (usually, sometimes other teams later on in the game) where in the latter stages in Europe and games got postponed so that the last 5 games after the split started late and Celtic's final game took place after everyone else (except their opponents obviously) had finished.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by glamdring:

You can't "postpone" a game to the day earlier! Football clubs want TV money so they have to make sacrifices.

Your issue of playing 6 games in 12 days is a whole different kettle of fish to your example of just playing on a Sunday and again on Tuesday though.

I would like the option to request postponements personally too, but the former situation would never result in one. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hate to be pedantic but have another look at the topic title there; "request fixture reschedule" rather than postpone. In fact I never even mentioned the word postpone.

A lesson to be learnt for one and all on the perils of pouring scorn when not concentrating

Playing on Sunday and Tuesday very very very rarely occurs and just as the teams want the tv money, that's eactly what 12pm and 5pm Saturday kick offs are all about.

It is well known that CL teams playing on a Tuesday play PL on a Saturday and the teams playing CL on a Wednesday play on either Saturday and Sunday.

I was responding more to the idea based on the old implementation than your specific thread title.

I'm pretty sure (I may be wrong though) that the request you could make to the FA was to postpone a match, not to reschedule one. Plus the decision only ever seemed to be made the day before the match anyway.

Teams at lower level have to play 2 games in 3 days quite often though and lots of them have to do a proper job as well instead of just poncing around a football pitch for 180 minutes out of 72 hours so I can't say that I have any sympathy for high profile teams having to do the same once in a while - Premiership teams have to over the Christmas period.

I never even knew a "postpone fixture" feature ever existed.

Either it was before my time or it simply passed me by.

The problem with "reactivating" a system such as this is that FM doesn't often doesn't generate realsitic fixtures. (I remember seeing a post by dafuge that stated that he had matches on 6(ish) consecutive days).

The problem with delaying fixtures is that all fixtures need to be played by the date of the Champions League Final, (in certain nations anyway).

There are MANY people experienceing serious fixture congestion at the end of the season already and this feature could worsen this area significantly.

I can't comment about Bayern because I have never managed in Germany, but this idea would seem to improve the chances of Champions League success, (with a German team), but also significantly increase the chances of MASSIVE fixture congestion come the business end of the season.

It's NOT the answer and I'm afraid that the way forward is an increased squad size and/or fielding a weakened team.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Jimbokav1971:

It's NOT the answer and I'm afraid that the way forward is an increased squad size and/or fielding a weakened team. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

....or for SI to develop a more "intelligent" fixture generator? Not sure how easy this would be to implement tho?

why not click for it not to reschedule games for the tv

i do this as it speeds up the game

you still get on tv just but play the same time as everyone else

Stimps - intelligent fixture scheduling is actually a fairly difficult challenge, especially when you try to take into account groundshares and other things.

That said, I'd suggest that the majority of the problems here should be fixed by the "F.A.", not the manager:

1. When picking TV matches, avoid picking teams in the C.L. for Sunday and Monday matches preceding C.L. match-days. (Weight the C.L. teams more highly on weekends that do *not* precede C.L. match-days.)

2. Make "postpone from Saturday to Sunday or Monday" the first choice the F.A. take, if allowable.

3. Allow "reschedule back to Saturday" as an option for the scheduling code, for matches on Sunday or Monday, and make that preferable to postponing it for a date later in the season.

4. Be aggressive about finding reschedule-dates early in the season, e.g., unused Wednesdays and/or Saturdays, to prevent the same fixture from being rescheduled over and over; thats what leads to fixture congestion later.

5. For some predictable situations, make the schedule adjustment early.

- a Championship side in UEFA Cup, modify their schedule at the start of the season so that the early UEFA Cup Thursdays are "free" from the get-go.

- don't postpone a league match to a Cup date for a Cup that the team is still "alive" in if a valid non-conflicting option is available.

6. Fix South America, if it hasn't been, so that South American World Cup qualifiers in the second year of the tournament are, if not scheduled on, at least rescheduled to the Europe-based FIFA international date.

I agree

In the second season with Rangers I had 2 games in 2 days which were against Celtic and Gretna

Title rivals Celtic also had 3 games in 4 days including At. Madrid and me

I could do with that. Hope they do consider bringing it back would be nice if they do.

http://www.refplanet.com/stuff/fixt.jpg

Untick box. Sorted.

Also, in the lower leagues let's have games postponed due to weather conditions! Did anyone see league two a week ago? About half of matches postponed!

And of course the infamous match called off halfway through due to weather!