Why is every EFL fixture kicking off one minute late?

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Evening Standard

·6 February 2026

Why is every EFL fixture kicking off one minute late?

Every single fixture in the EFL this weekend has an unusual start times as part of an important campaign

All EFL fixtures this weekend will have unique and unusual kick-off times.

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Thursday night's game in League Two saw Accrington Stanley beat Salford City 1-0 and the game at the Wham Stadium kicked off at 8.01pm GMT.

This initiative will continue on Friday night as the London derby between Charlton and Queens Park Rangers will also kick-off a minute later than usually scheduled.

Similar timings were also used in last season’s play-off finals as the EFL look to raise awareness for the ‘Every Minute Matters’ campaign, a partnership between Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation which aims to encourage football supporters to learn CPR.

A statement released by the EFL the campaign set out to engage 270,000 people to start learning CPR using the BHF’s free RevivR tool by May 2025 currently sits at sits at over 450,000.

After the campaign’s successful launch, the target for February 2026 has been increased to 500,000.

Bristol Rovers defender Tom Lockyer is an ambassador for the project after he collapsed with atrial fibrillation in the 2023 Championship play-off final between Luton and Coventry.

Ambassador: Tom Lockyer

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He then suffered a cardiac arrest during a Premier League match against Burnley later that year.

Lockyer said: “I was just one of the more than 30,000 people who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest every year in the UK. I am lucky to be alive today, but the reality is that less than 1 in 10 people usually survive, which is why it’s vital that we continue to raise awareness.

“The symbolic kick-off times are the perfect way to make our lifesaving message impossible to ignore.”