Premier League managers will no longer have to worry about swift turnarounds between Champions League and Premier League games from next season.
That's after it was announced sides included in Champions League fixtures on Wednesday nights will be excluded from taking part in any 12:30pm kick-offs the following Saturday.
BT Sport's Saturday fixture will now take place at 7:45pm, instead of the lunchtime kick-off whenever one of the teams concerned has played in Europe on the preceding Wednesday.
The news comes amidst a season marred with complaints from managers of the top-six sides. Chelsea's Thomas Tuchel has consistently spoken out on the untimely fixture congestion throughout the current campaign.
"We're going to kill the players. That's what I've always said. We are going to kill them because there is an important link between preparation, performance and rest," Tuchel declared in November.
"In football, it always falls on the greatest players because they will always play for their country. They play during the break, they travel and that's too much in my opinion. They don't have a recovery phase to allow them to come back and a preparation phase."
The manager of Chelsea's Champions League final opponents Manchester City, Pep Guardiola, has also been a huge critic of the current demand on players.
"I love football, I love to play football, I love watching it on television, I love everything but it's too much," Guardiola protested at the start of the season. "I know the business but it's too much for the players. The players don't have a rest mentally or physically.
"This is going to happen because they are not consulting with anyone. There are 365 days, and you have to put all the competitions and all the games (in), and especially right now with what happened last season with COVID-19, it's reduced the calendar so it's more difficult, but it's too much."
Meanwhile, Liverpool sit in sixth place in the current Premier League standings but the Merseyside club still have an outside chance of making it into the top four given their two games in hand on fourth-placed Chelsea. The Reds' boss, Jurgen Klopp has echoed the complaints of his rivals regarding the fixture pile-up.
“I think everybody would agree that if you play Tuesday night, you can play the Saturday 12:30pm game, but somehow the Premier League never realises that,” the German coach told BT Sport.
“They always put in the Wednesday night game, like last Saturday, Man City had to play this game (12:30pm on Saturday) - I can’t believe it. We are obviously not friends, we play against each other and fight against each other, but how is that possible?"
