Why Premier League clubs are playing 60-minute games and three 45-minute halves in pre-season friendlies
Quick summary
Premier League clubs are experimenting with unconventional friendly match formats — including 60-minute games and three 45-minute halves — during pre-season ahead of the 2026-27 campaign.
Full article
Attributed to original sourceA number of English sides have taken part in ramp-up matches which have not been 90 minutes long, but there's a good reason for this
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What happened
Multiple Premier League clubs have adopted unusual formats for their pre-season friendlies, departing from the standard 90-minute match. These include 60-minute games and matches split into three 45-minute halves. The experiments reflect evolving thinking around player load management, fixture congestion, and IFAB-aligned trials of shorter match formats. The article explores the rationale behind these choices and what they signal about the future of the professional game.
Chance analysis
These pre-season experiments are largely a product of growing concern over player workload and injury prevention, amplified by congested fixture calendars and ongoing IFAB discussions around match duration. For prediction systems, the key takeaway is that early-season friendly results should be heavily discounted as sample sizes and conditions are non-standard. The trend also signals that clubs are proactively trialing formats that could shape future competitive regulations, particularly in youth and development contexts.
Limited competitive impact — these are pre-season friendlies with non-standard formats, so results carry minimal signal for league performance predictions.
Do not weight pre-season friendly results from these experimental formats when calibrating early-season competitive predictions; treat them as conditioning exercises rather than predictive data points.