The Shocking Reason Behind Manchester City and Newcastle United’s Unusual Thursday Night Champions League Clash Revealed!

So, here’s a little curveball for all the football buffs and schedule hawks out there: Manchester City and Newcastle United are kicking off their Champions League campaigns on a Thursday night this season. Odd, right? The Champions League usually commandeers Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while Thursdays are comfortably claimed by the Europa League and Conference League — you know, the usual drill. But come September 18, you’ll see Barca at St James’ Park and Napoli storming the Etihad, mingling with a handful of other fixtures on a night that’s normally off-limits for Europe’s premier tournament. Why the shake-up? Well, it’s tied to UEFA’s latest reshuffle aimed at giving the Champions League and Europa League their own exclusive spotlight in early September, while cleverly slotting games from other cups to avoid leaving TV viewers hanging. It’s a bit of a chess game with broadcast rights, and it means more midweek action than ever before — fantasy managers, this one’s for you. Curious to dive deeper into why the Champions League is creeping into ‘Channel 5’s Thursday night’ territory? LEARN MORE

Fans of calendars and forward planning will have noticed that Manchester City and Newcastle United will play their opening Champions League games on a Thursday night this season.

That’s weird, because the competition is generally held on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, with Thursday usually reserved for the Europa League and the Conference League. ‘Channel 5, Thursday nights’ and all that.

So why the change for Barcelona’s visit to St James’ Park and Napoli’s trip to the Etihad, alongside four other Champions League games on Thursday, September 18?

Thursday night Champions League games came in last season as part of UEFA shake-up

Thursday night Champions League games actually took place last season too, with a handful of games moved as part of UEFA’s shake-up of their three continental cup competitions.

Arsenal were the only English side affected on that occasion, with their opening clash away to Atalanta taking place on what Joey Tribbiani would consider ‘the third day’.

As for why that’s happening…UEFA have basically decided that the Champions League and Europa League will get their opening weeks to themselves in September.

Because it just would not do to have a week without an extra evening of precious TV rights to sell, games from the other competitions are spread out as a one-off each season to help fill in the gap.

The first week of the clumsily-named Champions League league phase comes a week before the Europa League equivalent gets under way, and two weeks before the Conference League starts properly – and so there were no Thursday night slots to fill on week commencing September 15.

As such, UEFA have moved six games to that Thursday night:

• FC Copenhagen vs Bayer Leverkusen
• Brugge vs Monaco
• Eintracht Frankfurt vs Galatasaray
• Sporting vs Kairat
• Newcastle vs Barcelona
• Manchester City vs Napoli

Gives you an extra night to use your midweek substitutions in Fantasy Champions League, anyway.

The following week, there is no Champions League or Conference League football, and so the Europa League will spread its legs to encompass Wednesday evening as well that week.

That’s why Nottingham Forest are going to Real Betis and Celtic visit Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) on Wednesday 24 September, rather than the customary Thursday.