Why every Football League game is starting one minute later this weekend

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 7 Feb 2026 05:14 CST
• 4 min read

Nieuws

Every game in the Football League from the Championship down to League Two will begin exactly one minute after the advertised time this weekend.

It's all to raise awareness for the 'Every Minute Matters' campaign.

Between 5 February and 9 February, 36 matches will take place in the initiative, each starting one minute later. For example, the 3pm Saturday kick-offs will commence at 3.01pm in the United Kingdom.

The initiative was created as a collaboration between Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation.

The Purpose Awards says of the campaign, which was nominated for the Best Health Cause campaign award:

"Through it’s ‘Every Minute Matters’ campaign, Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation have established a gold standard for marketing collaboration to create a significant impact on CPR awareness and training. The partnership launched on the 1st May 2024, to coincide with Sky Bet’s flagship brand moment of the EFL football calendar, The Sky Bet Play-Offs. This was a highly relevant moment - given just 12 months prior, Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer had collapsed in the final itself at Wembley during his team’s victory, with a heart related issue.

Tomorrow is 'Every Minute Matters' across the EFL alongside @TheBHF, with all matches kicking off one minute later than usual to raise awareness of learning CPR.

Back in October, Reading fan Pippa Sharman spoke to RoyalsTV about the importance of CPR from her own experience at… pic.twitter.com/Jq9fnrKmX4

— Reading FC (@ReadingFC) February 6, 2026

"Months later Tom suffered a cardiac arrest on the pitch during one of Luton’s Premier League games. Sky Bet and the BHF used the relevance of that moment as the catalyst to leverage the passion of football fans to amplify the life-saving mission of the BHF. By focusing on raising awareness about teaching football fans CPR, the partnership empowered fans to become lifesavers while fostering a meaningful connection to the cause through football icons, and BHF case studies. This submission highlights how the partnership’s innovative use of talent, key calendar moments and access to football club fan bases make it a standout candidate for the Best Health Cause campaign award."

Every Minute Matters is supported by ambassadors like Glenn Hoddle, Jermain Defoe and Micah Richards. The former England manager suffered a cardiac arrest in 2018 while working as a pundit and was saved by a sound engineer who performed CPR.

Lockyer, the former Luton defender who suffered a cardiac arrest in a Premier League match against Bournemouth in 2023, praised the "transformative" skill of being able to correctly perform CPR.

"What happened to me can happen to anyone, anywhere, at any time," the now Bristol Rovers player said, as quoted by BBC Sport.

"Every year, more than 40,000 people in the UK suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and most of them never make it home.

"I'm here today because of the transformative power of CPR as every minute matters when it comes to saving a life.

"This February, we want everyone to get behind this life-saving initiative, learn the skills and be ready to step in because your actions could give someone else the chance I was given."

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