When is the Championship fixture release day? And how are Middlesbrough's fixtures compiled?
Get the latest Boro stories straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Each season league bosses have to compile a fixture schedule for each league, and in doing so trying to keep as many teams as possible happy. Neil Warnock bemoaned Middlesbrough's last term after the computer drew them to start the campaign away to recently-relegated Watford before a home clash with Bournemouth who had also just returned to the Championship from the Premier League. Glenn Thompson is the chief fixture compiler for both the Premier League and the EFL, among others, has explained to the Premier League website exactly how it's done ahead of the top-flight's fixture release day. But first... The Premier League are doing their fixture release day a week earlier than the EFL this summer. Top flight clubs will learn their season schedule at 9am on Wednesday, June 16 but Middlesbrough and other EFL clubs will have another week to wait before learning theirs. The EFL fixture release will be at 9am on Thursday, June 24. With fans expected to return to stadia next season, Boro supporters are no doubt eager to see who the fixture computer throws up for the first game of the season as they make their return to the Riverside. It will also be revealed when they will face the sides relegated from the Premier League - Fulham, Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion - as well as the teams promoted from League One: Hull City, Peterborough United and Blackpool. In a really interesting interview on the Premier League website, Thompson, chief fixture compiler, revealed it's 'a complex process' that requires 'lots of hard work.' He said: "We cannot do anything until we know the composition of each division, which is after the last EFL playoff. Then we can start looking at the main bit of compiling the fixtures. "It is a matter of placing each of the clubs in a pairing grid, which basically defines the dates they will be at home. "For every date in the season, the fixture computer knows who is at home and who is away and then it will mix them up randomly to determine which matches will take place on which date. "Most clubs will have a partner club they cannot clash with. "There are the obvious ones  Manchester United and Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton  and then when you get into London it gets a bit more complex and less obvious. "If we have got any issues, we might have to go back and start again to produce a different set of fixtures. I'm reviewing the fixtures all the time to ensure other things can be met. "Traditionally the Premier League, the EFL and Atos representatives will review the fixtures over a number of days, looking at every date in the season to make sure that wherever possible we have met everything we have been asked to. "The computer is very useful during the review because if we do not want a certain fixture on a particular date, it will give us alternate dates for that fixture to be moved to. "It can be that changing one match may require 40 other changes. "You always learn in this job. There are new things that come along. Playing dates, competitions and leagues change every year. It's almost like starting from scratch again every time we do it. In what promises to be a busy summer, get the latest Boro transfer news delivered to your inbox It promises to be a busy summer at Boro. Neil Warnock is hopeful of adding "eight or nine" players to his ranks as he targets a promotion push next season. And you can keep up to speed with any developments and get the latest transfer news in your inbox by signing up to our free newsletter. Your daily helping will include breaking transfer stories and analysis, as well as in-depth features and coverage of pre-season. To sign up to the newsletter, all you need to do is pop your email address in the box at the top of this story and click 'subscribe'. For more details, please CLICK HERE. "If there are issues with a club's fixtures one year, you try to take that into account in the next year and try to ensure if there is an undesirable set of fixtures, they don't get it two seasons in a row." Make sure to join us at 9am on Teesside Live as we reveal the full Boro fixture list for the 2021-22 campaign and provide detailed analysis of the schedule throughout the day.