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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Kyle Newbould

Why Everton v Man United is kicking-off at 7pm on Sunday

Everton's clash with Manchester United at Goodison Park on Sunday will kick-off at the unusual time of 7pm.

And the reason? It's all to do with the Red Devils' European commitments and an agreement between broadcasters.

Originally scheduled to kick-off at 12.30pm on Saturday and to be shown live on BT Sport, questions were raised when it was announced that the Blues' visit of United had been moved back a day and and would get under way at 7pm.

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The reasoning behind this comes down to the Red Devils' European schedule, first and foremost. Erik ten Hag and his squad travelled to Cyprus on Thursday to face Omonia Nicosia in a Europa League group stage fixture.

Premier League rules state that teams playing across the continent on Wednesday or Thursday are ineligible to play in the early kick-off on Saturday - a rule that always pushes those featuring in the Europa League to a Sunday kick-off.

But because the agreement between the league and its two main broadcasters - BT and Sky Sports - does not allow either to overlap in screening matches, there is no other option but to push Everton’s game back to late on Sunday evening.

Sky Sports will show Crystal Palace vs Leeds at 2pm, followed by Liverpool's trip to Arsenal at 4.30pm.

Sunday evening kick-offs are commonplace across Europe, particularly in France, Spain and Italy, where fixtures regularly get under way late - this weekend, Roma host Lecce at 8.45pm local time, while Barcelona welcome Celta Vigo to the Camp Nou at 9pm.

Everton will be looking to record their third consecutive league win on Sunday, building on last Saturday's 2-1 triumph at Southampton and the 1-0 victory at home to West Ham United the weekend before that, and face a United side still wounded by last Sunday’s 6-3 humbling at Manchester City.

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