The mid-season World Cup has caused scheduling headaches for all of Europe’s top leagues but the Premier League’s has just got worse thanks to Manchester United’s failure to qualify for the last 16 of the Europa League.
The Manchester club needed to beat Real Sociedad by more than one goal in Thursday night’s clash to top their Europa League group but could only win 1-0.
This means that will not automatically qualify for the last 16 of the competition and instead will have to play one of the Champions League teams dropping into the tournament in a knockout phase to qualify for the next round.
This has become a problem for the Premier League as there is currently no gap to reschedule the league games Man United are behind on against Crystal Palace and Leeds.
According to ESPN’s Dale Johnson, between now and the end of the season, Man United’s empty midweeks are covered by possible FA Cup replays, Carabao Cup dates, European dates or empty midweeks already reserved for specified catch-up dates related to domestic cup competitions and states that there’s nowhere to slot them in.
Johnson says that Man United are the only team who cannot rearrange games in February and March, and they need to fit in two Premier League games which were postponed due to The Queen’s passing.
United will need to exit competitions and hope that the teams they need to play are out as well or else the Premier League’s problem will get even larger.
Between now and the end of the season, Man United's empty midweeks are covered by possible FA Cup replays, Carabao Cup dates, European dates or empty midweeks already reserved for specified catch-up dates related to domestic cup competitions.
There's nowhere to slot them in.
— Dale Johnson (@DaleJohnsonESPN) November 3, 2022