Liverpool submit request to the Premier League to have opening day fixture played away from Anfield

Liverpool have submitted a request to have their opening Premier League fixture of the 2023/24 season played away from Anfield.

While the Reds still have a slim chance of finishing in the top four this term, the club also have one eye on next season.

Indeed, Jorg Schmadtke has been tipped to become the club’s new sporting director, replacing Julian Ward who will stand down from the post at the end of the season.

Moreover, the club are set for a busy summer in the transfer market, having endured a difficult campaign plagued by poor form and injuries.

As Jurgen Klopp looks to rebuild Liverpool’s waning squad, Anfield is receiving the finishing touches of a major £80million face-lift, and the redevelopment of the ground is likely to spill over to the start of next campaign.

Liverpool’s Premier League request

According to the Athletic, Liverpool have asked the Premier League to play their first game of next season away due to the redevelopment of Anfield.

The new Anfield Road stand, which will boost the stadium’s capacity by 7,000 seats to around 61,000, is set to be completed at the start of August.

Yet, a test event will need to be staged at the ground to secure the necessary safety certificate.

In turn, Liverpool officials believe playing their opening Premier League fixture away on the weekend of August 12 will provide sufficient leeway for the Merseyside club to have everything in place.

Paul Cuttill, Liverpool’s vice president of stadium operations, told the publication: “We’ve put in the request, but we haven’t had it confirmed yet by the Premier League.

“If it is confirmed, we’ll be looking at around August 19 for our first home game of the new season to be played here with the new Anfield Road stand open. It’s been incredibly challenging but we’re on time and we’re on budget.”

While work started on the new stand back in September 2021, the new structure has been taking shape behind and above the existing stand, and in turn, has not yet impacted the stadium’s capacity.

However, following the final home game of the season, the pitch will be covered and two large cranes will be brought in to remove the roof of the stand before it is dismantled and taken away.

The new structure has been taking shape behind and above the existing stand [Alamy]

Once the roof has gone, construction company Buckingham Group have a four-week window to demolish the old upper tier. Meanwhile, the lower tier is being refurbished and connected to the new structure.

The test event in early August is unlikely to be a pre-season friendly at Anfield, with Klopp instead taking his squad to a training camp in Germany in July.

Cuttill said: “We need to bring people into the stand and then evacuate to show that it can work from an access and egress point of view.

“We don’t know at this point what the test event will look like due to the work that is taking place on the pitch for that four-week period.

“Once that period is done and we lift the covering off the pitch, we’ve then got to relay the pitch and get ready for the start of the season.

“The critical thing for us is to make sure the pitch is pristine. Once the roof has come off and we can lift the covering off the pitch, we can then assess how long it is going to get the pitch to that standard and then we look at what the test event might look like.”

Topics: Football, Liverpool, Anfield, Jurgen Klopp, Premier League

Chris Byfield

Sport journalist with experience writing on football, rugby, boxing and the Olympics. I'm also a Crystal Palace fan. Please don't hold this against me.