Back to normalcy? Premier League announce 2021-22 season start, end dates

After a season interrupted for 100 days by the start of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, and a season condensed by an entire month as the pandemic raged on, the Premier League is set to return to a more ... daresay, normal ... schedule next season.

Last season, the Premier League didn’t finish until July as everything got shut down from March to June. That late finish pushed the start date of the current season to mid-September, while keeping the usual late-May finish. But next season, it looks like we get to back to usual mid-August start as well.

The Premier League confirmed today that the 2021-22 season will start on August 14, 2021 and finish on May 22, 2022.

The league will be also hoping to have fans back by then, and maybe even for the last couple matchweeks of this season as well. The UK government have set May 17 as the date for the return of, at most, 10,000 spectators — if allowed by dropping case rates — which could see the league push the penultimate round of matches to midweek while keeping the current May 23 weekend end date (to allow two rounds of games with fans instead of just one).

“The first step is to see that Trophy presented on 23 May, hopefully in front of 10,000 fans, somewhere in this country. Beyond that, from the beginning of next season, our goal is to have full stadia and the Government’s roadmap offers us that opportunity.

“There’s a lot of water to pass under the bridge before that can happen but that’s our ultimate goal: the return of full vibrant Premier League stadia and a return to the normal Premier League.”

-Richard Masters, CEO; source: Premier League