The Premier League has officially announced the start and end dates for the 2026-27 season. The season will commence on Saturday, August 22, 2026, and conclude on Sunday, May 30, 2027. This start date is later than usual, marking the latest start in Premier League history, excluding the 2020/21 season which was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This decision to push back the start date by a week is primarily to prioritize player welfare amidst an increasingly congested global football calendar. The later start provides an 89-day rest period between the end of the current season and the beginning of the new one. It also allows for 33 days of recovery following the FIFA World Cup 2026 final. The season will conclude a week before the UEFA Champions League Final, scheduled for June 5, 2027.

The 2026/27 season will consist of 33 weekend match rounds and five midweek match rounds. The Premier League schedule will be designed to avoid conflicts with UEFA club competition dates whenever possible.

Over the Christmas and New Year period, no two match rounds will occur within 60 hours of each other. This commitment addresses the challenges of the busy festive schedule within the expanded international calendar. Boxing Day in 2026 falls on a Saturday, which should allow for a more typical festive fixture schedule.

In a related decision, Premier League clubs voted against the introduction of top-to-bottom anchoring (TBA), a financial mechanism that would have imposed a hard spending cap on player-related costs. Instead, clubs have agreed to implement the Squad Cost Ratio (SCR) system, where on-pitch spending, including transfer fees, will be limited to 85% of a club's football revenue.