Aston Villa have seen a strange request to reschedule their already rearranged clash with Liverpool – set for Wednesday night – blocked by the Premier League.
Liverpool’s trip to Villa Park was moved to Wednesday, February 19 after their participation in the Carabao Cup final was confirmed.
It comes due to a Premier League directive to reschedule fixtures for the nearest possible opportunity, which is largely in place to avoid any further issues down the line.
But Villa took exception to that date and attempted to move their clash with the Premier League leaders back to mid-March.
According to the Telegraph‘s John Percy, Villa “wanted to push the Liverpool game back to the third week of [March]” to avoid a “huge fixture pile-up” this month.
Unai Emery’s side will play five games in 14 days starting with the visit of Ipswich on Saturday and followed by Liverpool (H), Chelsea (H) and Crystal Palace (A) in the league and then Cardiff (H) in the FA Cup.
But their request to the Premier League was logistically impossible – unless they either pulled out of the FA Cup as Man United did in 1999/00 or intended to play Liverpool during an international break.
Liverpool and Aston Villa fixtures
Feb 28: Aston Villa vs. Cardiff – FA Cup
Mar 4/5: Champions League round of 16 1st leg
8: Liverpool vs. Southampton – Premier League
8: Brentford vs. Aston Villa – Premier League
11/12: Champions League round of 16 2nd leg
16: Liverpool vs. Newcastle – Carabao Cup final
17-26: International break
29: FA Cup quarter-finals
Neither are feasible and it is certainly doubtful whether either would be permitted in the rules for those various competitions.
Liverpool and Villa will both play in the Champions League last 16, with the two legs of their ties taking place in the midweeks of March 4/5 and 11/12.
The Reds will then face Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final on March 16, before the majority of players across the top Premier League clubs depart for the final international break of the season between March 17 and 26.
Both Liverpool and Villa only play one league fixture next month – the former at home to Southampton and the latter away to Brentford, both on March 8 – but there are no free slots due to Villa’s progress in the FA Cup.
It is therefore no surprise that Villa’s request was denied by the Premier League but it is surprising that Midlands reporter Percy described the club as “frustrated with the refusal.”
At some point Villa’s hierarchy failed to conduct any research into their own fixture schedule. One can only imagine how the Premier League‘s reply was worded.
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