Is TV Unfairly Punishing CAFC?

Pudds

Bowyer has talked about having a days less rest a few times this season. With our mid-week game being on a Wednesday again I thought I would look into this to see if we are being unfairly treated with rest.

I have ignored Sunday fixtures with a weeks rest after as I don't think this has as much of an impact. I have also looked forward to account for this weeks and the final weeks mid-week games.

Of the 9 occasions with TV impacting when we play, we have had the same rest 3 times, one of which our Saturday game was moved forward to a Friday meaning there was no other option. We have had more rest twice and we have had less rest on 4 occasions. 

If you take the same rest occasions out of the analysis as there is no net benefit in days rest, we have had a disadvantage in 4 out of the 6 games in which a team has been able to have additional rest.

I completely understand that having games selected for TV will have an impact on rest here and there, however when entire rounds of fixtures are being adjusted, there should be an element of fairness built in IMO.

Fixtures

21st August - CAFC vs Forest & Leeds vs Brentford
24th August - CAFC vs Brentford

1st October - Reading vs Fulham
2nd October - CAFC vs Swansea
5th October - Fulham vs CAFC

22nd October - WBA vs Barnsley
23rd October - Bristol vs CAFC
26th October - WBA vs CAFC

26th November - Luton vs CAFC
27th November - Wednesday vs Birmingham
30th November - CAFC vs Wednesday

10th December - CAFC vs Huddersfield & Leeds vs Hull
(Friday) 13th December - CAFC vs Hull

29th December - Swansea vs Barnsley
30th December - Derby vs CAFC
2nd January - Swansea vs CAFC

11th February - Forest vs CAFC & Blackburn vs Hull
15th February - CAFC vs Blackburn

25th February - Huddersfield vs Bristol
26th February - Wednesday vs CAFC
29th February - Huddersfield vs CAFC

Upcoming after this week:

17th March - CAFC vs QPR
18th March - Preston vs Cardiff
21st March - CAFC vs Cardiff

Additional note:

There are 2 instances that fall a little outside of the initial frame I used above as it is about TV moving a single game to a Friday or Sunday rather than a whole round of fixtures being allocated for TV.
- When we played Fulham on Wednesday 22nd January, they played on the Friday prior and us on the Saturday adding a day disadvantage.
- When we played Bristol City on boxing day, they had played on the Sunday instead of the Saturday adding a day advantage.

Chizz

No

Uboat

Good research, but mainly seems to show that we do well when we've got a fit squad and badly during an injury crisis. 

Cafc43v3r

No, we benefit from playing teams the game after they played Leeds :-)

Think I am joking, look at Leeds fixtures and then the teams who played thems next fixture. 

Off the top of my head we played Brentford (h) and Forest (a) the game after they played Leeds and won both. We lost our next game after Leeds.

I think I am right in saying that Fulham are the only team that have beaten Leeds this season and not lost thier next game and they only drew. 

Briston_Addick

Cafc43v3r said:

No, we benefit from playing teams the game after they played Leeds :-)

Think I am joking, look at Leeds fixtures and then the teams who played thems next fixture. 

Off the top of my head we played Brentford (h) and Forest (a) the game after they played Leeds and won both. We lost our next game after Leeds.

I think I am right in saying that Fulham are the only team that have beaten Leeds this season and not lost thier next game and they only drew. 

Put money on an opening day defeat for us next season ...

MuttleyCAFC

I would have thought it wouldn't be impossible to ensure all the teams playing on a Tuesday, play on a Saturday within that group. Same with Wednesday.

Pudds

MuttleyCAFC said:

I would have thought it wouldn't be impossible to ensure all the teams playing on a Tuesday, play on a Saturday and visa versa.

I'm not suggesting that, more that it should even out over the season.

However, this seems a little unlikely (the below are accounting for all midweek fixture rounds and the following Saturday.

Hull have had the same rest after ALL of their midweek games as their weekend rivals
Leeds have had the same rest 5 times and benefitted from an extra day 4 times

Charlton, Cardiff and Swansea are the only clubs to have been at a disadvantage 4 or more times

golfaddick

MuttleyCAFC said:

I would have thought it wouldn't be impossible to ensure all the teams playing on a Tuesday, play on a Saturday within that group. Same with Wednesday.

This. Fixture permutations must be a headache as it us, but trying to pair 4 teams (AvB & CvD.......then AvD & BvC) would just be a step to far for the EFL computer.

lordromford

I think it is sometimes tricky to sort out the logistics of these things and I don’t think there’s any hidden agenda.

However, I did think at new year that it was a bit odd when you look at the games on 29th/30th Dec and 1st/2nd Jan:
Derby v Charlton was the only game played on 30th December
Swansea v Charlton and Derby v Barnsley were the only two games played on the 2nd January.
You can see that Derby and Charlton had a day less rest than Swansea and Barnsley for these January games, but you’d probably think that you can’t justify moving Swansea and Barnsley’s games because that would then have a knock on effect on two more teams.
Except, in this case, Swansea and Barnsley were actually playing each other, so it would’ve made sense to move their game to the 30th too.

I don’t think it’s that big a deal, personally. But I find it surprising the fixture people wouldn’t make this simple adjustment to nullify any potential complaints.

jimmymelrose

TV punishes us because we more often lose when on TV. 

Also TV never seems to show us on FA Cup Final day. It's been the same all my life and I'm sick of it.