The Football League is planning to abolish midweek games for Championship clubs.
Supporters from Brentford, QPR and Fulham have been so far scathing about the proposal, but they may want a second think after reading these travel statistics for last season.
The second tier had 179 midweek matches this season excluding those that took place on bank holidays.
As many as 11 of those involved round trips in excess of 500 miles each between the grounds of the two clubs playing one another.
Middlesbrough fans suffered the most from midweek scheduling.
A Boro fan travelling to and from the club’s ground for every away game held during the week this season would have racked up a massive 3,824 miles.
A QPR fan would have clocked up 3,196 miles, a Brighton fan 3,162 miles and a Leeds United fan 3,088 miles.
Changing these matches to take place on the weekend wouldn’t remove the distances of course, but what would change is the times fans got home.
For example, the longest distance travelled between grounds for a midweek match was between Middlesbrough and Cardiff, with both ties occurring on Tuesdays.
A round trip between the two grounds is 572 miles, a five hour and 18 minute journey each way according to Google Maps.
If the match finished around 10pm then fans wouldn’t have got home until around 3.20am the following morning.
The full Championship chart of midweek miles travelled for 2015-16
1 Middlesbrough: 3,82; 2 QPR : 3,196; 3 Brighton: 3,162; 4 Leeds: 3,088; 5 Reading: 2,968; 6 Cardiff: 2,914; 7 Burnley: 2,846; 8 FULHAM 2,836; 9 Nottingham Forest: 2,492; 10 Hull City: 2,436; 11 Bolton: 2,268; 12 Derby: 2,158; 13 BRENTFORD; 2,088; 14 Charlton: 1,982; 15 Ipswich: 1,978; 16 Rotherham: 1,964; 17 Blackburn: 1,874; 18 Wolverhampton: 1,802; 19 Preston: 1,736; 20 Huddersfield: 1,382; 21 Sheffield Wednesday: 1,314; 22 Bristol City: 1,314; 23 Birmingham: 1,282; 24 MK Dons: 1,066
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