The Boxing Day Tradition Has Gone: This Highlights Everything That's Wrong With Modern Day Football

The Boxing Day Tradition has Gone: This Highlights Everything that's Wrong with Modern Day Football

Fans are outraged as the Premier League has announced that this season there will only be one Boxing Day game played this season.

This change comes after a congested fixture schedule in the UEFA competitions with the expansion to a league table system rather than the traditional group stages, as well as the decision for FA Cup games to be played on the weekends rather than having a mix of midweek and weekend games.

In other words, this is utter woke nonsense.

🚨🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 This year, there will be only 1 Premier League match on Boxing Day, reports @TimesSport. 🔻

The EFL and the National League are staying with tradition, with all their games still scheduled for Boxing Day. pic.twitter.com/MhqNN2Hef3

— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) October 27, 2025

A Tradition like no other

The Boxing Day tradition stems back all the way to 1888 when Everton played Bootle in a goalless draw. This came after they played two, YES TWO, games on Christmas Day. The first game of the day was in the Lancashire Cup against Blackburn Park Road then the following game was an exhibition match against Ulster FC.

From 1888 there have been top flight boxing day games every single season (except from 1982 when Boxing Day fell on a Sunday, this was when Sunday games weren’t fully accepted so all those games were rearranged for the following day, Monday 27th December). Truly showing how big of a tradition this is in the world of English football.

And who can forget about the infamous 1963 Boxing Day results that no one ever seems to talk about. A staggering 66 goals across 10 games with results like Fulham 10-1 Ipswich or Liverpool 6-1 Stoke and even West Ham 2-8 Blackburn.

Boxing Day 1963 delivered some of the wildest football results in history 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/ggLO7Gm0PO

— Footy Humour (@FootyHumour) December 26, 2024

When the fixture lists get revealed in the summer most match going fans look instantly for who they’ve got on Boxing Day, whether it’s an away day travelling half the country and back with your family/friends, all still stuffed on Christmas dinner, alcohol and chocolate or a home game where you wrap up warm on a cold winters day. Could be going with your family, maybe taking someone to their first football game all hoping for a win to fully round of the festive period.

Football Elites taking control

Boxing Day is a day for football, it’s a day for the fans and it’s being taken away. Whether it’s the TV companies such as Sky Sports, TnT, Amazon Prime or footballing bodies like UEFA and the FA. Match going supporters are having less and less of a say in a sport that should be all about them. However, a scary thought about this situation is how little control fans have over football nowadays.

Every year a change happens which leaves them in the shadows. This could be ridiculous kick off times, such as when West Ham had to travel up to Newcastle on a Monday night last season.

We’ve seen the “elites” try and take control of the sport before, such as the Super League where all the “Big Clubs” across the top European leagues wanted to break away and create their own league, hence the Super League name.

This unsurprisingly was hit with major backlash all across the footballing world, from fans to pundits/ex-players. Gary Neville had his say about the matter. "I said during the game that I thought the clubs that signed up to it should be deducted points, that includes this club Manchester United - the club that I love and I've supported all my life. But I'm ashamed of them, absolutely ashamed”.

On this day: 2021 - After protests from fans, Chelsea announced it had pulled out of the European Super League. #cfcHeritage #Chelsea pic.twitter.com/Qjw1ySupfj

— Chad ⭐⭐ (@ChelseaChadder) April 20, 2025

The future of Boxing Day football

Now what could this mean for the future of Boxing Day football? Could this be the beginning of the end for Boxing Day games as we know it, could this new festive fixture schedule be the new normal?

The Future of Boxing day Football is up in the air. The Premier League could be doing this as a test to see how the lack of Boxing Day fixtures are received by players, managers and fans. If received well then maybe this will be what’s to come in the near future and Boxing Day fixtures will be a thing of the past, or, if received badly then the premier league may have to scrap any idea of not having Boxing Day fixtures and keep them on the footballing calendar.

However, what outcome is definitely a possibility is that the Premier League could seek a middle ground. This means that they might try and spread what would be Boxing Day fixtures over a few days. For example last season there were two fixtures played on the 27th of December, these being Brighton vs Brentford and Arsenal vs Ipswich. This might only be the start to a more diluted Boxing Day fixture list.

Manager and Player Complaints

This sort of change could be as a result from pressure from managers or players who have moaned or complained about the congested fixture schedule. Many top Premier League managers have complained about Fixture congestion over the years. “The system does not protect the players. It’s too much, honestly it’s too much.”

“That’s why the players get injured. It’s no secret, so you just pray every day and hope everyone finishes the game without a problem.” Pep Guardiola spoke out about the issue and what his opinion on it was.

“This sort of winter period… people do struggle with injuries and knocks… It can get really challenging at times, especially for the lads who are playing three games a week.” Here Anthony Gordon let his thoughts know about the winter period and how hard it can be on the players.

Whether the Boxing Day fixtures being moved is a one off or has the potential to be a permanent change who knows. But this change proves how easily fans are disregarded in matters such as this. If the Premier League wants to help try and tackle fixture congestion, taking away Boxing Day games isn’t the move at all. It is seen as a rich tradition, even a ritual and it should be the Premier Leagues job to keep it going forever.