Author: Paul Gerald

For even more about English soccer,
check out the new site for my upcoming book:
An American’s Guide to English Soccer

What’s the best time to go watch soccer in England?

As I sit here planning my trips to watch soccer in England during the upcoming season, I find myself thinking there are two ways to approach this thing.

One way is to say, “When can I go, and what games will be happening while I’m there?” In other words, maybe you’re going for Christmas (a great time to be there!) or late summer (also great) or Spring Break (iffy for soccer), and you’re wondering what will be available.

Another way (which I aim for) is, “What’s the best time to go, when I will have the greatest number of games to choose from?”

It’s for both reasons, but mainly the second, that I have worked up this blog post about when to go see soccer games in England. A version of this, for the 2016-17 season, will appear in my guidebook to English soccer, which I will publish in summer of 2016. (Meanwhile, you can read all my English soccer blog posts here.)

First, About All The Competitions

English soccer isn’t like American sports, where there’s a regular season, then a playoff. In England, and all other countries really, there’s a league season – actually many of them – and then various tournaments (Cups) spread throughout the season. So in any given week, there might be four leagues and two Cups to choose from!

You can go read my guide to the leagues and cups and English soccer, or you can accept this very quick summary: Imagine that all of baseball in the US was entirely independent teams, instead of the farm system we have today. So, all the major leagues would play each other, plus AAA, AA, A, and on down the line. But they wouldn’t have postseason playoffs – just a league season, and whoever has the best record wins. In England, there’s the Premier League, then three levels of the Football League: the Championship, League One, and League Two. Then there’s a bunch more below that, but forget them for now.

Back to the baseball analogy, there would also be “cups” during the year, where all the A teams would play a game, then the winners would move on to face the AA teams, then those winners would face AAA teams, and eventually the major league teams would join, then it would all lead up a championship game.

And every round is completely unseeded! So the Yankees (Manchester United) might have to play at Savannah, Georgia (Charlton Athletic). In theory, a AA team could beat a major league team for the title. Basically, that’s a “cup” in English soccer, and there’s a bunch of them, but we’ll just worry about the two biggies, the League Cup and the FA Cup.

The League Cup is just for the 92 professional teams in the Football League and Premier League, and the FA Cup is pretty much for everybody – more than 800 teams last year!

Still with me? One last level here: The top five or so teams (it’s complicated) in the Premier League also play in European tournaments each year, but those are called leagues, which is confusing and silly. These are the Champions League and the Europa League. Basically, think NCAA and NIT.

Okay, Let’s Talk Dates

The season basically corresponds to our school year, August to May. All the leagues run in those dates, more or less playing every weekend, but occasionally taking a week off or moving to mid-week to accommodate Cups or European competitions. Sometimes the European stuff, in particular, is during the week.

Let’s say you’re in the first group mentioned above: planning a trip over there, and wondering which games will be happening while you’re there. I have created a chart (Best-Times-To-See-Soccer-in-England) with weeks across the top and competitions down the side. (I did that for the 2012-13 season, but you get the idea). So “9-3” means third week of September, and the legend on Page 1 will explain what all the symbols mean. I put this together based on the last three seasons, and the yellow stuff is my predictions based on that research.

Here’s a whole post about the Best Times to Go to England to Watch Soccer, 2016-17 Season.

There’s no week from August to May when somebody isn’t playing soccer in England, so whenever you’re there, you’ll have options. I’ll write another post about how to get tickets, but for now just rest assured they’re always at it, somewhere.

Watching Soccer in England – Best Times to Go

But let’s get to the heart of the matter: When is the best time to go to England to watch soccer?

First, let’s talk about the weather. It’s mild in summer, fall, and late spring. It’s plain shitty for most of winter – think 38 degrees and raining. Bad news is, all the games are outside. Good news is, most of them are in the afternoon, and almost all the seats are covered. Also good news: Summer is the most expensive and crowded time to get there, and in summer nobody’s playing soccer. I’ve flown over in January for $900 on a half-full plane. (These are among the many things I think you’ll love about watching soccer in England.)

That said, and looking at my chart, here are some good times to go, and my reasoning for each:

The Last Week of August: Every year that I researched, in the last week of August, all four top leagues were playing; the FA Cup was in its final Preliminary Round; and the League Cup was in its Second Round. All of those games are in England! There would be 92 league teams playing (roughly 20 of them in the Greater London Area, so probably 10 games). In the FA Cup, the Preliminary Round has 320 teams in it – so that’s 160 games in one weekend! And we’re talking about teams like, oh, Bridlington Town, which has a stadium of about 3,000 people. This is the “real” FA Cup!

Meanwhile, in the League Cup, this is when most of the Premier League teams enter (the ones not playing in Europe), so for this round there’s something like 25 games in a weekend.

And remember, these cups are unseeded! If you ever wanted to get into, say, Old Trafford to see Manchester United, this is a great chance to get a seat, since they might be playing, say, Newport County. On the other hand, Man U might have to play at Newport County!

Meanwhile, both European Cups are also happening the last week of August, in early rounds, so there might be games in England then, as well.

Last Week of September: Again, all the leagues will be playing, and the FA Cup will be in its Second Round Qualifying. This would be teams like Stockport County (capacity 10,000) playing somebody like Didcot Town (capacity 3,000, but only 350 seated!). Also this week, the League Cup has its Third Round, when the rest of the Premier League teams come in. There are always a few League One teams still around (that’s the third level of the country), so for example last year mighty Chelsea had to play at Swindon Town in front of fewer than 15,000 fans, and Stoke City of the Premier League played Tranmere Rovers in front of 16,000 people.

Last Week of October: All leagues playing, final qualifying round of the FA Cup (32 games), Fourth Round of the League Cup (8 games), and early-round games in the Europa League, which may include a Premier League team at home. Plus, I have to think Halloween in London would be fun?

First Week of December: All leagues playing, plus the FA Cup Second Round, with 20 games. League One and Two teams entered in the last round. Also this week are early rounds of the Champions League, with probably a couple games in England, but that’s a tough ticket!

Second Week of December: All leagues, and Round 5 of the League Cup, which is the quarterfinals and usually made up entirely of Premier League teams. This is also when those clubs and fans start to give a crap about it. (Think quarterfinals of the NIT). There will also be early-round Europa League games this week, some of them probably in the UK. and there’s this — who the hell travels in the second week of December?

The Holiday “Festive” Period: If you can stand the weather, this is the absolute best time to go watch English soccer. Every league plays a full schedule this year on December 20, December 26 (Boxing Day), and December 28. Then the Premier League plays again on Thursday, January 1, and League One and League Two play on January 3. That’s a stretch of 15 days with 181 league games!

And why don’t the Premier League and Championship play the first weekend of January? Because that’s the week of the FA Cup 3rd Round, when all 44 of those teams enter! So, on the first weekend of January (this year it’s the 3rd and 4th), there are another 32 FA Cup games. At this point, there are still some teams left from League Two or lower, like Kidderminster Harriers of Conference Premier (level 5), who last season made the 4th Round and played at Sunderland.

By my count, that’s 213 fully professional soccer games to choose from in two weeks! I’m all over it this year.

Last Week of January: All leagues in action, plus the 4th Round of the FA Cup, with 16 games, and the semifinals of the League Cup.

First Week of March: Maybe your spring break? All leagues playing (45 games), plus the final of the League Cup at Wembley Stadium in London, and Round of 16 games in the Champions League. Those last two can be really tough tickets, but it’s a fun time to be there. Find out where the fans are gathering the night before the League Cup Final, and go see that for sure.

Second Week of March: All leagues, FA Cup quarterfinals, maybe some Champions League.

Last Week of March: All leagues, Europa Round of 16, and – here’s something new – qualifying stages for the 2016 European Championships in France. 50-50 chance England has a home game this week.

Third Week of April: All leagues, plus the FA Cup semifinals, Saturday and Sunday at Wembley. Really festive weekend in town.

Second Week of May: Premier League playing, plus the next three leagues down – Championship, League One, and League Two – having playoff semifinals to determine who gets promoted one league up for the next season. This is some intense shit. (Note: These dates aren’t official for the coming season, but it’s a good guess.)

Fourth Week of May: This would be an awesome time, as well! Last week of the Premier League, when all 20 games start at exactly the same time, usually with serious stuff on the line, like who’s gonna win the league, who’s qualifying for Europe, and who’s getting relegated to the Championship. Everybody calls it “chaos.” Also this week will be at least one, probably two, playoff finals for the Championship, League One and/or League Two.

FA Cup Final: If you’ve got serious connections or about $1,000, the FA Cup Final this year is on May 30 at Wembley. I really hope to be there!

Alright, so as you can see, I think there are a lot of good times to go watch soccer in England. I’ll have a hard time deciding, for sure. Like I said, on a future post I’ll get into how to buy tickets. And then I’ll do stuff like where to sit (and where not to sit), what some of the songs are, which rivalries (derbies) to look out for, etc.

I am just in love with English soccer at the moment, and I hope I have sparked a little interest in you, as well!

For even more about English soccer,
check out the new site for my upcoming book:
An American’s Guide to English Soccer

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