The Football Association have announced that a provisional restart date for the 2019-20 FA Cup has been agreed upon.
The quarter-finals of the competition will now take place over the weekend of June 27-28, with the semi-finals staged three weeks later on July 18-19.
The final will be held on Saturday 1 August.
The decision to host the FA Cup quarter-finals and semi-finals on weekends does raise the possibility of more Blank and Double Gameweeks taking place.
Reports suggest that, after the outstanding fixtures involving Manchester City, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Sheffield United are fulfilled, the remaining Premier League games will then take place over six weekends and three midweek rounds of matches.
Factoring in the mooted July 25 end-date and those FA Cup rounds, the weekend schedule will probably look as follows:
June 20-21: Premier League
June 27-28: Premier League/FA Cup
July 4-5: Premier League
July 11-12: Premier League
July 18-19: Premier League/FA Cup
July 25: Premier League
That means there are five midweeks in between each weekend, with three of them – we think – expected to host full sets of top-flight fixtures.
Therefore two midweeks are free and it could well be that those are the ones that follow or precede the FA Cup quarter-finals and semi-finals, allowing any postponed Premier League matches to be simply moved back or forward three or four days and still fall within the same ‘Gameweek’.
For example, a (very) hypothetical schedule could look as follows, with the weekends highlighted in bold:
June 17: Aston Villa v Sheffield United + Manchester City v Arsenal (potentially part of a DGW39)
June 20-21: Premier League GW39
June 23-24: Premier League GW40
June 27-28: Premier League GW41/FA Cup quarter-finals
June 30-July 1: Free midweek, accommodating postponed GW41 games
July 4-5: Premier League GW42
July 7-8: Premier League GW43
July 11-12: Premier League GW44
July 14-15: Premier League GW45
July 18-19: Premier League GW46/FA Cup semi-finals
July 21-22: Free midweek, accommodating postponed GW46 games
July 25: Premier League GW47
So despite today’s announcement, there are certainly no guarantees of further Blank or Double Gameweeks being added to Fantasy Premier League – should the game restart, of course.
No decision on venues and timings have yet been announced but the all-Premier League line-up for the FA Cup quarter-finals is as follows:
- Leicester City v Chelsea
- Newcastle United v Manchester City
- Sheffield United v Arsenal
- Norwich City v Manchester United
The full FA statement can be read here.
3 years, 10 months ago
Yeah, only first GW looks a DGW.
BB pretty much wasted for me then, I don't see value of it outside a DGW.