Arsenal and Leicester fans have reacted with fury after their Premier League fixture at the Emirates was moved to Sunday from Saturday, four weeks before it was due to take place.
The match between the top two was to have taken place on 13 February at 3pm but has been moved to Sunday 14 February after Sky decided they wanted to screen the potential title-decider.
A Leicester fan group, called Union FS, suggested boycotting the first five minutes of the game in protest at the change.
“‘Why? To make a point that without fans, there is no saleable product,” say the fan group. “Just 22 blokes kicking a ball around on some nicely cut grass. We would encourage Arsenal fans to join us with this, as they graciously did with Bayern Munich fans recently.
“We appreciate that fans want to watch the game they have paid for, and rightly so, but this is an extraordinary issue and we would ask you to join us and make a one-off stand for all football fans.”
The TV company said Leicester’s unexpected title challenge had prompted the change. Fans of both clubs are furious at the prospect of being left out of pocket for travel costs.
A Premier League spokesman said: “We always seek to give fans a minimum of six weeks’ notice of fixture changes. It is only on extremely rare occasions we don’t meet that aspiration during the normal course of the season.
“We are in discussions with Arsenal and Leicester City to see what can be done to help fans affected by this scheduling change.”
