Why Christmas Day is more akin to Boxing Eve in the world of sports coverage

Christmas Day is an odd time in the world of sports journalism. Ostensibly, all is quiet. There are no major tournaments or events to cover, no managers’ press conferences to attend, and almost never any news to report (unless your beat is US sports, where NFL and NBA games are scheduled for a rare festive outing on national television).

But by contrast, Boxing Day has taken on a sporting tradition in its own right. A wide-ranging football schedule unfurls across the country whatever the weather, with a near-complete Premier League line-up which this year includes added intrigue: Mikel Arteta and Carlo Ancelotti will manage Arsenal and Everton for the first time respectively, while league leaders Liverpool, fresh back from their Club World Cup triumph in Qatar, take a trip to their nearest challengers Leicester in the evening in a pivotal game for the title race.

Then there is the cricket. The Boxing Day Test is a regular on the cricketing schedule and 2019 is no different, with England in Gauteng for the start of their four-Test series against South Africa. Our cricket writer Vithushan Ehantharajah is out there ready to cover the much-anticipated meeting between the world’s third and fourth best Test teams, which will see Ben Stokes in major action for the first time since being named Sports Personality of the Year.

It means that in many ways Christmas Day is more akin to Boxing Eve in the world of sports coverage. Previews are prepared in advance, pre-match quotes are embargoed for the morning papers and live blogs are set up and ready to go, so that when Boxing Day comes around we can cover every single aspect of one of the final bumper days of the sporting calendar.

Yours,

Lawrence Ostlere

Sports features editor