Liverpool kick-off time vs Man Utd was moved 'due to $9m Premier League deal'

It doesn’t matter how well or poorly Liverpool and Manchester United are performing in any given campaign, their clashes are among the biggest games of any Premier League season.

The giants of the north west of England will meet at Old Trafford on Sunday, arriving at the fixture in differing moods. While the Reds have two wins from two games to start 2024/25, United were beaten 2-1 at Brighton last weekend.

We will have to see what the outcome of this huge match will be. One unusual aspect of it is the kick off time, and we now know why the game is starting 30 minutes earlier than we would have expected.

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The main Premier League game on a Sunday afternoon traditionally kicks off at 4:30pm UK time (11:30am EST) and is televised on Sky Sports. However, the contest between United and Liverpool gets underway at 4pm (11am EST) this weekend.

There had been some confusion regarding the reason for the switch, simply because neither club nor the Premier League had issued a statement to explain. The assumption that the decision was taken due to policing concerns regarding the fiery fixture, and Mail Sport has now confirmed the thinking behind the kick-off switch.

The same source revealed earlier this year that the competition was going to pay various police constabularies around $9m (£7m/€8m) in exchange for later, more lucrative kick-off times. Premier League officials have claimed the payment was a ‘thank you’ rather than to exert any influence though.

Whatever the truth behind that, a compromise appears to have been struck with regards to the big game this week. The two Old Trafford meetings between United and Liverpool both kicked off at 3:30pm (10:30am EST) last season. The Reds will be hoping for a better result this time around, having suffered an extra time FA Cup loss and a league draw in those games .

But while it won’t be in Sky Sports’ preferred slot, the match on Sunday will be 30 minutes later than those previous games. According to Mail Sport, the Red Devils and Reds liaised with the Safety Advisory Group, which includes the police, to put everything in place for a 4pm (11am EST) kick-off time.

They could play it at midnight and there would be millions of people around the world tuning in. At least all parties have managed to agree upon a start time which works for all concerned.