With the international break now upon us (yet again) it's a good time to catch up on a few things you may have missed in recent days.
FINES FOR POST-MATCH SCENES
Luton Town and Sunderland have been fined £15,000 and £7,000 respectively for the mass confrontation at their EFL Championship match on Wednesday 23 October. Both clubs admitted that they failed to ensure their players and/or technical area staff didn’t behave in an improper and provocative way after the final whistle. An independent Regulatory Commission imposed their fines following a hearing. The fact that Luton were fined more than double that of Sunderland perhaps suggests the Hatters are seen as the instigators of the incident. There were several bookings after the 90 minutes were up which may come back to haunt both clubs in terms of suspensions later down the line.
SKY FIXTURE CHANGES
Sky Sports have once again scuppered travelling fans' plans by changing five of Sunderland's fixtures throughout January and February. This includes three away games and two home fixtures. The matches affected are as follows:
Burnley (A): Friday, January 17th (8pm)
Boro (A): Monday, February 3rd (8pm)
Watford (H): Saturday, February 8th (12:30pm)
Leeds (A): Monday, February 17th (8pm)
Hull (H): Saturday, February 22nd (12:30pm)
At least we're receiving a bit more notice this season, as part of Sky's new deal with the Championship which sees clubs in our league receive a seven-figure revenue boost, but it is still far from ideal. It also doesn't help that the three away games are all high-profile fixtures where people will have already made plans, potentially booked time off work and arranged travel. Leeds away on a Monday night is just terrible, as is Middlesbrough. ALS will be running coach travel to these matches as is the case for every away game, and those details will be announced when relevant.
