Liverpool welcome decision to scrap Christmas Eve Arsenal fixture plan
Jurgen Klopp revels in Liverpool's seven-goal output at Maribor, a club record for a European away match.
Liverpool CEO Peter Moore has welcomed the Premier League's decision to scrap plans to schedule the club's trip to Arsenal for Christmas Eve.
Both the club and their supporters strongly opposed Sky Sports' proposal for the match to be played on Dec. 24, and it will now take place on the evening of Friday Dec. 22.
Moore said Liverpool were looking to provide assistance for supporters travelling to London for the match because of public transport difficulties.
The 7.45 p.m. kick-off means trains that depart from London after the game arrive back in Liverpool on Saturday morning.
He said in a statement: "First and foremost, it is important to acknowledge that both the Premier League and Sky Sports have listened to the concerns that were expressed by fans and by ourselves and acted upon them.
"It is to their credit that, on this occasion, they have shown themselves to be flexible and have come to a decision which we feel is preferable to asking our supporters to travel to London on Christmas Eve with all of the difficulties and potential problems such an arrangement would have entailed.
"At Liverpool, we never take our supporters for granted, and while we recognise that moving the fixture to a Friday night is more desirable than the alternative, we also realise that it is not an ideal solution for those who will be undertaking a testing journey to London at a particularly busy time of year.
"For that reason, we are looking to see what we can do to help those fans who are planning to make the trip."
UK broadcast selections for #PL matches until 28 December have been announced ?? https://t.co/Vt9BKgtfTy pic.twitter.com/BOsotWEZnf
— Premier League (@premierleague) October 19, 2017
Meanwhile, Liverpool supporters' group Spirit of Shankly (SOS) said it believed discussions with fans about fixture alterations should be held in future.
"We would like to thank Sky, the Premier League, Liverpool FC and other clubs for listening to supporter concerns about scheduling fixtures on this day," a statement from the group said.
"There will, however, be problems for fans of both Liverpool and Arsenal with our game now scheduled to take place on the evening of Dec. 22.
"We will seek further exchanges with the club about how they might best assist supporters.
"This is a situation that could easily have been avoided. Including supporters in advance of any conversations or decisions on such fixture changes would have been advantageous.
"SOS wholly advocate supporter representation, and will continue to push for such in any future discussions."
Glenn is ESPN FC's Liverpool correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter: @GlennPrice94.
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Source: espn.co.uk
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