Burnley’s Boxing Day clash against Everton at Turf Moor has become the third festive Premier League match to be postponed in 24 hours.
Sean Dyche’s Clarets were scheduled to host Everton at Turf Moor on Sunday 26 December at 3pm GMT, which has now been postponed with approval of league officials due to a mixture of positive Coronavirus cases and injuries in the visiting squad.
Explaining the decision behind this postponement, Premier League bosses issued the following statement: ‘Everton were due to travel to Turf Moor to play on Sunday, at 15:00 GMT. The Board reviewed the club’s request today to postpone the match following further injuries to their squad.
‘They concluded that the club will not be able to fulfil their fixture this weekend as a result of an insufficient number of players available to play due to COVID-19 cases and injuries.’
Acknowledging the impact upon fans of both clubs, the statement went on to read: ‘The Board this morning was able to make its decision in advance of Boxing Day to give clarity to clubs and their fans.
‘We apologise for the inconvenience and disruption caused to those supporters’ festive plans.’
This match now is the third Boxing Day encounter to be postponed in just two days, after the two lunchtime kick-offs at Anfield and Molineux between Liverpool and Leeds plus Wolves versus Watford respectively were called off due to squad issues for Leeds and Watford.
Acknowledging the impact of fixture postponements at this ‘special’ time of season, Premier League officials revealed that it isn’t their intention to ‘disappoint supporters’ , following numerous recent short-notice postponements in the last fortnight.
Details of rearrangement for all three postponed fixtures will be communicated in due course when appropriate to do so, with the midweek of 18-20 January now available for catch-up games after FA scrapped replays from this season’s FA Cup due to fixture congestion.
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