At Christmas, almost the entire world goes on vacation and only football players in the English Premier League continue to work hard. The tradition of holding football matches on the day after Christmas — December 26 — has been going on for decades.
ICTV Facts decided to tell about the tradition and the emergence of Boxing Day in football and interesting facts.
What is Boxing Day
Boxing Day is a match of the next round in the English Premier League. They usually fall on the 18th-19th round and are played the day after Christmas.
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Some fans mistakenly believe that Boxing Day is a super-strike“ten-day period during which teams play three or four rounds. But this is not true.
The EPL is the only league in the world where football clubs play matches on December 26 and gather sold-out stadiums. Moreover, the status of the team does not play any role here: Aston Villa and Ipswich or Brentford and West Ham.
In the Boxing Day match, each footballer strives to show all his skills and present the fans with a gift for the holidays in the form of a team victory.
Also, Boxing Day is usually used for derbies – matches between clubs from the same city or region. Since it is inconvenient for a fan to travel across the country, and going to a neighboring city is quite acceptable.
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The history of Boxing Day
The history of Boxing Day reaches back to the 17th century, when nobles thanked their servants for their work during the year. Since servants had to work on Christmas Day, gifts from their employers the next day were a kind of consolation for the missed holiday.
The first Boxing Day match in history was the game between Sheffield and Hallam in 1860, which fell on December 26th. Interestingly, this match is also the first official match in the history of football. Then Sheffield won over their opponents with a score of 2:0.
Almost 100 years later (1957), matches on December 26th have become traditional in the football calendar of championships of all divisions.
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Interesting facts about Boxing Day
- The team that is bottom of the table before Boxing Day is usually relegated to the Championship;
- Often the team that is top of the Championship at Christmas wins the Championship trophy at the end of the season — but in the last six seasons it has happened twice;
- The highest scoring matches on December 26th took place in 1963. 66 goals were scored in ten matches;
- On December 27th 1963 The Daily Mirror came out with the headline: Mad, mad, mad, mad football Boxing Day, because on that day football fans saw three pokers, three hat-tricks, eight doubles, four red cards, and an average of 6.6 goals scored per game.
During the crazy ten-day period, the teams demonstrate logical results. This segment shows which team is in good shape and which one is struggling.
The motive for Boxing Day is simple — to hold as many matches as possible during the Christmas holidays, which will be attended by the maximum number of fans.
