Fans tend to think that some spiteful little pixie at the FA organizes the fixture schedule in fact it is devised by an information technology company in Wilmslow.
Once the lists are out an immediate backlash follows as supporters complain that their opening day game is away from home for the fifth consecutive year and their longest trip has been scheduled for a wet Wednesday night in February.
The computer that causes these controversies is at Sema Group's offices five minutes up the road from Sir Alex Ferguson's home. At the heart of everything is its programmer Glenn Thompson.
Fixture compilation does not become a full time job for Thompson until all play-off issues are resolved, but his preparatory work starts in November when the football authorities tell him what the format of the following season will be.
The FA explain which dates the forthcoming season will start and finish and when breaks will take place for internationals and cup competitions before Thompson begins to ensure that the season goes off as smoothly as possible. This in the main is achieved by a procedure known as pairing.

Pairing is conducted on a regional basis and revolves around the issue of which clubs should not play at home on the same day as others to avoid the overdeployment of police resources and stewards in the area.
Obvious examples of pairing are Liverpool and Everton, and Tottenham and Arsenal where the same police force are responsible for both clubs, but it also stretches right across the divisions. For example, Middlesbrough and Hartlepools are paired.
The clubs themselves are approached by the leagues towards the end of each season to check their requirements for the following term and where possible their request will be met. For example Shrewsbury Town always ask to be allocated an away game for the weekend of the Shrewsbury Flower Festival.
Once the play-offs are over and the composition of each division is known and the date that the fixtures will be released for general scrutiny looms, the fixture computer is ready to roll. Glenn often finds himself working 16-hour days to resolve the problems the machine can throw up.
The machine is programmed so that no run of five matches contains more than three home or away games. Checks are also put in place to guarantee that a team having a variable season does not meet the same opposition twice in too short a space of time.

The computer randomizes selection within the set parameters, but Glenn has to look out for anomalies. If one of the previous campaign's top five clubs drew each of the other top sides in their opening four matches he may, in conjunction with the leagues, consider re-running the program to make the calendar less frenetic.
The only time that that the computer does not get involved is for Boxing Day games where Thompson completes the job by hand to ensure that no club travels for more than 2 ½ hours. He admits that is when the power of the job really sinks in with the realization that that he personally is responsible for mobilizing over one million people.
Everything possible is also done to ensure that where possible excessive midweek travelling is minimized even if it means shuffling all 12 matches that particular week.
As soon as a draft fixture list has been created the leagues along with club representatives, supporter's organizations and finally the police meet with Thompson and scrutinize the lists for problems.
There may be a recent history of trouble between two teams that rules out matches between the two at certain times. If one was based at a seaside town, Thompson would try to avoid running battles through the streets during high season.
Once all parties are reasonably happy, the lists are published and the season can begin. The computer goes back into hibernation and Thompon can begin his holidays. For the rest of us, of course, the nightmare has only just begun.