The two sides were scheduled to play each other in the Premier League this weekend.
Burnley and Luton Town are both looking to bounce back from opening-day defeats in the Premier League, but they will have to wait.
The Clarets’ trip to Kenilworth Road – to face last season’s Championship play-off winners – was postponed last month. Luton’s unique, old-school
stadium with a 10,356 capacity fell short of top-flight broadcast and media requirements. The Hatters need to carry out work costing £10million,
which started soon after their Wembley win over Coventry City in May.
That led to the club requesting for their first home match of the season to be postponed, with Rob Edwards’ side having travelled to Brighton and
Hove Albion on match day one. The Premier League granted that request and a new date for the match is still to be confirmed.
ALSO READ: Liam Rosenior drops hint over Scott Twine’s long-term Burnley future
Luton’s club statement on the matter stated that ‘the Premier League understandably requires guarantees to its fixture schedule, within sufficient
time, to advise supporters and broadcasters of any changes in advance’ and that ‘due to the extent of the project, the club cannot absolutely guarantee
supporters that any future unforeseen issues would not cause any delay, potentially impacting upon the scheduled opening game at home.
Luton chief executive, Gary Sweet, said: “The joint decision to delay this fixture is regrettable, especially given the amazing progress that continues to
be made on our construction works. Our current programme is indeed on time, but there is no additional contingency and therefore (we) can’t give a
cast-iron guarantee at this stage – that a problem outside of our control, however minor, wouldn’t force a postponement further down the line and
inconvenience supporters of both clubs.
“Although this news will be a disappointment, this will make the matchday experience even greater for fans when they do get to come back. We
would like to thank the Premier League and Burnley for their help in arriving at this practical decision.”
Burnley’s next match will now be at Aston Villa on Sunday, 27 August. Clarets boss Vincent Kompany, though, is not overly concerned.
“For us, it was brilliant,” he said. “Two more friendly games and we’ll get some more minutes into the legs of the new players that have arrived. At
some point it will cause an unnecessary strain on the calendar in terms of having to play midweek, but if I look back at last year, I think we played 16
or 17 times in midweek, so I think we’ll be missing it by then anyway.”
Leave a Reply