Crystal Palace’s recent successes will prove to be its undoing just before Christmas. A monumental scheduling logjam shows what the bloated calendar in professional soccer is doing.
Anyone who celebrates Christmas is probably aware that things get hectic just before the holidays. But what Crystal Palace is facing in 2025 is something rarely seen in professional soccer. Unless an unexpected solution emerges, Oliver Glasner’s team will have to play four times in eight days: on December 14, 16, 18, and 21.
This monumental scheduling jam arose last Wednesday evening. With a 3-0 coup at Liverpool FC, Palace reached the quarterfinals of the League Cup and drew Arsenal FC. The quarterfinals are scheduled for the week of December 15, when Palace actually has no time for them.
Between the Premier League matches against Manchester City (December 14, 3 p.m.) and Leeds United (December 21, 3 p.m.), the Eagles will face Finnish representatives Kuopion PS in the Conference League on December 18 (9 p.m.). It is not yet officially known on which day the cup match at Arsenal will take place, but December 16 is the most likely solution. This is because the organizer, the English Football League (EFL), has no suitable alternative date either before or after that. Palace also has a Conference League match the week before (December 11 at FC Shelbourne), and during Christmas week, the only option before Christmas Eve would be December 23, which would only give Palace about 48 hours’ rest from their previous match in Leeds.
Glasner: “That would be irresponsible”
Palace is not only doomed by having qualified for the European Cup and the League Cup quarterfinals, but above all by the fact that the international professional soccer calendar leaves hardly any gaps. Due to the European Cup reform, the preliminary round in the three competitions now lasts ten weeks instead of six. The 2025 Club World Cup and the bloated 2026 World Cup have further exacerbated the situation by leaving the national leagues with an even shorter span for their 2025/26 season. “That would be irresponsible towards the players, for whom we have a responsibility and whose well-being we must keep an eye on,” warns Glasner. “When I first heard about it, I was really upset. I couldn’t believe they were even considering it.”
Glasner would welcome a postponement to Christmas week, but then Arsenal would also have to play twice in three days.
On the one hand, it’s fair, but on the other, it’s questionable whether the Gunners would agree to it—after all, they don’t have the scheduling problem in the week starting December 15: the Champions League is already in its winter break then. When Palace has some breathing room again in January, the Champions League will be back and Arsenal will be unavailable.
Last year, Newcastle narrowly avoided a similar situation.
Although there was a bit of bad luck involved in the League Cup quarterfinals, with a Champions League participant facing a Conference League participant, the problem could arise again at any time in the coming years. Last year, Newcastle narrowly avoided a similar situation with its round of 16 victory over Conference League participant Chelsea.
With a view to similar bottlenecks in the future, Glasner is therefore calling for closer consultation between UEFA, the Premier League, and the English Football Association. “It would be nice if they would all sit down together; that’s the job they’re paid to do.”
