12th October 2019 Put yourself in the position of the fans of National League side, Dover Athletic, as they set off on their journey to Barrow in Furness - a trip that goes from one corner of England to the other. It's just the 371 miles, and takes in excess of six hours -- and that's before you factor in crucial pit stops. You can imagine there would be more than a few weary eyes by the time the cars and coaches pulled into Barrow's Holker Street ground. The Dover fans would just have got settled down with a pie and a pint before, at 1:43 p.m, 77 minutes before the scheduled kickoff time, Barrow announced the game had been called off. Rain? Snow? Fog? Nope... the Dover squad was stuck on a train due to problems on the mainline and couldn't get off. It became clear just after midday that the Dover squad were going to struggle to make it for 3 p.m. and despite hopes of delaying the kickoff, there was no way to save the game. The furious Barrow club was left with no choice but to postpone the match.
Many a match has had a delayed kick off because of the late arrival of the visiting team - back in 1961 a nightmare journey led to an abandoned Football League match between Barrow and Gillingham. The rearranged match on October 9th resulted in a 7-0 win for the home team. Due to travel problems, Gillingham arrived at the stadium at 5.30 pm - the time the game was due to kick-off. They had to change hurriedly, and due to their rushed preparation, were losing 7-0 when the game was "abandoned" due to poor light. The Football League declared that the result should stand. Billy Jervis played his one and only Football League game for Gillingham. If the match had been declared null and void due to the abandonment his one league appearance would have been deleted from the record books.
However the prize for the craziest kick off time must surely go to Barcelona when they entertained Sevilla in a Spanish La Liga fixture in September 2005. The match was scheduled for Wednesday 3rd September, the day they had to release many of their international players to their countries for a weekend of international fixtures. Not wishing to play with a weakened team Barcelona tried to get the date brought forward to the Tuesday, without success, but what they did control was the kick off time. So they decided to kick off on the Wednesday at 12.05am - 5 minutes past midnight - in the hope that all their star players could play, get a reasonable night's sleep and then leave to join their international squads on the Wednesday morning as the rules required. That ploy wasn't a complete success as far as team selection was concerned but the match was a success. Attracted by the novelty of the fixture, cheaper tickets and free snacks an amazing 80,237 turned up at the Nou Camp to witness a 1-1 draw.
TV also dictated the kick-off time of the 2008 Champions League Final between Manchester United and Chelsea in Moscow. Armchair fans saw the match kick off at 7.45pm which was perfect for the British and western European TV audience. But the match was played in Moscow and 7.45 for us was 10.45pm local time in Russia! When extra time was over and the penalties were taken it was 1.30 am in Moscow, and the cup still had to be presented!
But TV couldn't be blamed for the earliest kick off in senior football in England - it happened in 1892! Football League side Burton Swifts were double-booked on Saturday 1st October 1892 - a Second Division match at Crewe Alexandra and a home FA Cup Preliminary Round match against Singers of Coventry (a forerunner of Coventry City). They solved the problem by bringing forward the cup tie to the previous Wednesday - with an 8am kick off, yes that's 8 o'clock in the morning! Swifts won 3-0 although there is no record of the attendance!
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