Nottingham Forest vs Sheffield United is not on TV tonight – due to the cricket.
The first Friday night football of the Premier League season beckons when Forest host the newly-promoted Blades ahead of the second weekend of the new campaign. Friday night football is usually a Sky staple but this time, it won’t be live on TV in the UK.
Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United will be looking to pick up their first points of the season after opening-day defeats to Crystal Palace and Arsenal respectively and will also mark their first meeting since the 2022 Championship play-off semi-final at the City Ground.
Why is Nottingham Forest vs Sheffield United not on TV?
Yes – it's because of cricket.
The clash was originally scheduled for a standard 3pm kick-off on Saturday 19th August, but due to Nottingham cricket side The Trent Rockets taking on Birmingham Phoenix the same afternoon, concern over heavy congestion in the city meant a move to a Friday night slot.
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The fixture wasn’t originally scheduled for TV when selections were made, and Premier League rules state that can’t change even if a game is moved to what would be a TV-friendly viewing time for many supporters sat at home on a Friday evening.
Sky Sports also already has the live Championship game between Leeds United and West Bromwich Albion on Friday night, while there is a double helping of live Premier League action on Saturday night.
Sky will be showing Ange Postecoglou’s first home game as Tottenham Hotspur manager against Manchester United, immediately followed by the clash between Manchester City and Newcastle United at 8pm on TNT Sports.
You can find out more about the fixture here, with FFT's How to Watch for the game.
More stories and season previews
FourFourTwo have season previews for plenty of other leagues too, including the Premier League, where we rate each of England's top 20 clubs in detail.
Our Ligue 1 Season Preview looks at whether Paris Saint-Germain's stranglehold on French football will continue, while our Bundesliga Season Preview poses a similar question of Bayern Munich and German football. In Italy, it’s a wide-open race between the top teams as we delve deep with our Serie A Season Preview and in Spain, we assess whether Barcelona or Real Madrid will come out on top in our La Liga Season Preview.
We also have the Championship season preview, the League One season Preview and the League Two Season Preview for you to get stuck into.
