Why Manchester United vs Newcastle United is the only Premier League match on Boxing Day 2025?

Manchester United’s home game against Newcastle United will be the only Boxing Day fixture in the ongoing season of the Premier League, with kick-off scheduled at 8 PM GMT (1:30 AM IST, December 27).

With this, English football’s top flight is breaking away from the long-standing tradition of festive fixtures that started in 1888.

The League has cited fixture congestions and broadcast contract requirements as the official reason for the sparse Boxing Day schedule.

“There are now several challenges to Premier League fixture scheduling rooted in the expansion of European club competitions—which led to a revision of our domestic calendar ahead of last season, including changes to the FA Cup.”

Why is Manchester United vs Newcastle United the only Boxing Day fixture?

With Boxing Day falling on a Friday, and with Premier League committed to a 33-weekend broadcast agreement, only one game could be allocated to December 26.

The choice of the Manchester United vs Newcastle fixture though is random – a byproduct of the complex fixture compilation done by multinational IT company Atos, which takes into a multitude of factors like international breaks, European commitments and domestic cup fixtures to produce the schedule.

Premier League has confirmed that it will return to a packed Boxing Day schedule for 2026, as it falls on a Saturday.

“The League can give an assurance that next season there will be more Premier League matches on Boxing Day as the date falls on a Saturday,” the Premier League said.

Published on Dec 25, 2025