Leicester City and Manchester United are the latest two clubs coming under pressure to play their Premier League match at the King Power Stadium scheduled for Dec 23 on the afternoon of the following day, Christmas Eve.

There has already been controversy around the plans to schedule Arsenal’s home game against Liverpool at lunchtime on Christmas Eve with issues over the London club being able to hire the requisite number of stewards.

Telegraph Sport understands that United and Leicester are pushing back hard against the proposals by the broadcaster Sky Sports, supported by the Premier League, with the potential for the game to be played at 3pm or even one hour later, at the traditional Sunday set-piece televised game kick-off time of 4pm.

There is frustration at Sky Sports at being cast as the villains of the piece with the broadcaster, which paid £4.2 billion for its share of the domestic rights, under obligation to select games to play on the Sunday. Currently the Premier League schedule for that weekend, beginning Dec 23, has match-ups that pair geographically distant clubs, including West Ham and Newcastle; Southampton and Huddersfield Town; and Manchester City and Bournemouth.

Away fans making long journeys to watch their teams on the weekend before Christmas are likely to run into problems on public transport and motorway networks already under strain.