Manchester United's pursuit of a third successive Premiership title to mark the end of Alex Ferguson's reign will begin with games against two newly-promoted teams. Jean Tigana's Fulham, back in the top flight for the first time since 1969, face the daunting trip to Old Trafford on the opening day of the season. United visit Blackburn Rovers, who pipped them for the title in 1995, four days later.
It will all be grist to the mill for ITV's new Match of the Day highlights programme which will be screened on Sundays as well as in its traditional Saturday night slot. The network is to screen Sunday programmes between six and 10 times a season when there are sufficient games played that day.
ITV won the rights for Premiership highlights from the BBC and will begin screening them from August 18th when the season kicks off with a programme fronted by Des Lynam and assisted by the pundits Terry Venables and Ally McCoist.
With the World Cup finals in Japan and Korea due to start on May 31st, the season will end a week earlier with the FA Cup final at the Millennium stadium brought forward by a week to May 4th. The switch has been made to give Sven-Goran Eriksson's England extra time to become accustomed to conditions in the Far East.
"We believe that should England qualify for the finals, it is imperative that the players are given the necessary time to adjust to the eight-hour time difference and to the humidity that will greet them in the Far East," said the FA spokesman Adrian Bevington, who confirmed that the FA Cup final would revert to its traditional date as the last game of the domestic season in 2003.
For the clubs pawing at United's coattails, the opening day league fixtures offer cautious encouragement. Arsenal, bolstered by an array of eye-catching new signings, travel to Middlesbrough for Steve McClaren's first match as manager; David O'Leary's Leeds host managerless Southampton before visiting Highbury in midweek.
The UEFA Cup qualifiers Ipswich Town travel to Sunderland, while Claudio Ranieri's Chelsea begin with a home game for the third successive season. Having thumped Sunderland 4-0 and West Ham 4-2 in the last two years, they will fancy their chances against a Newcastle side who have not won in the capital in 24 attempts.
Liverpool, competing in the Champions League for the first time, start against West Ham and new manager Glenn Roeder.
While Newcastle may have one eye on their Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland on August 25th, Chelsea's new £11 million midfielder Frank Lampard will be looking forward to a trip to his former club West Ham on August 22nd.
The Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce, who steered his side to promotion via the play-offs, was upbeat about his side's early-season prospects. "Leicester at home on the opening day is pretty reasonable because they didn't finish last season too well," he said. "Then we have Boro who have a new manager, so that could also go in our favour."
In Scotland, Martin O'Neill's Celtic start their defence of the Premier League at home to St Johnstone on July 28th. Arch-rivals Rangers, however, face a tough opening day trip to Aberdeen. Celtic's stunning success and Rangers' poor form was humiliating for the players and fans, but they have the perfect opportunity to gain revenge on September 29th when the sides meet at Ibrox in the first Old Firm game of the new campaign.
Dundee and Dundee United supporters do not have to wait that long to meet each other as the opening-day fixtures have thrown up a city derby at Tannadice.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter met his opposite number at UEFA, Lennart Johansson, in Stockholm yesterday and later promised more open decision-making in future. Johansson said progress had also been made in settling their differences in a number of areas and hoped the world and European governing bodies could work together more closely in future.
