In just over a week's time, Nottingham Forest fans will be able to put into their calendars the club's Premier League fixtures.
The Reds are busy preparing for their return to the top-flight after an absence of 23 years. With the transfer window opening on June 10 and fixtures being released on June 16, it is very quickly feeling real that Forest are a Premier League club once again.
England's Football Association have reportedly made a 'big six' Premier League fixtures request that could impact Nottingham Forest's schedule, but all will become clear when the full schedule is released next Thursday.
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There is a lot of planning that goes into organising the Premier League schedule. Atos, an international IT services company, have been responsible for pulling together various fixture lists since the Premier League was formed in 1992.
This is how Atos compile the Premier League fixture lists for all 20 member clubs...
The Premier League season will start on 6 August 2022, but preparations began long before the final whistle was blown in Forest's play-off final win over Huddersfield on May 29.
Glenn Thompson of Atos told the Premier League : "For me it begins at the start of the year; that's when I get the playing dates from the Premier League.
"The whole thing is built up putting in the international dates from FIFA, then the European club competitions, then the Football Association adds in the dates for its competitions and what you are left with are the dates when you can play league and League Cup matches."
Once the sequencing has been completed and dates available are made clear, a number of 'golden rules' have to be followed when generating potential fixtures. These include:
In any five matches there should be a split of three home fixtures, two away or the other way around.
A team will never have more than two home or away matches in a row
Wherever possible, you will be home and away around FA Cup ties
A club will never start or finish the season with two home or two away matches because it would be unfair for a team to finish with two aways, especially if they are looking for points
Around the Christmas period, if you are at home on Boxing Day you will be away on New Year's Day or the equivalent date and Atos will also try to maintain a Saturday home-away sequence throughout the season wherever possible.
Most clubs have a partner club - such as Manchester City and Manchester United - who cannot both play at home on the same day due to policing reasons
Premier League clubs are sent a form in March requesting any dates they do not want to play at home. These will be filled in in conjunction with local police to make sure that there are no clashes with major local events, such as festivals. For example, there was a requirement from the Metropolitan Police ahead of the 2012/13 season not to play high-profile matches until after 8 September because of the Olympics and Paralympics.
Once the provisional fixtures are compiled, a reviewal period of around two days will begin to make sure there are no clashes or problems.
Thompson said: "The computer is very useful during the review because if we do not want a certain fixture on a particular date, it will give us alternate dates for that fixture to be moved to. It can be that changing one match may require 40 other changes.
"We also have a working party meeting with representatives from all the leagues, the FA and also a fans representative, from the Football Supporters' Federation. They will have had an introductory meeting in March before the fixtures are produced and then just before the fixtures are released they will meet again to go through key dates of the fixture list, such as opening day and the Christmas schedule, and provide a check that all the requirements we have considered have been adequately dealt with.
"The fixtures are then looked at by the Association of Chief Police Officers and British Transport Police representatives."
He added: "You can't satisfy everyone. It's a compromise across all clubs; you can't do anything to favour any one club. There are 2,036 matches, across the Premier League and Football League over a nine-month period, and the ideal solution is to ensure that those matches can all be played when scheduled."
