Sunderland and Sheffield United will face each other in a play-off final on Saturday with the winner set to join Leeds United and Burnley, the other two teams automatically promoted from the EFL Championship for the next Premier League season.
The clash between Sunderland and Sheffield United, set to be held at the Wembley Stadium in London, will begin a minute later than the standard kickoff time of 3pm BST (7:30pm IST).
Why is the match kicking off a minute late?
The late kickoff is to raise awareness of CPR, Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation’s ‘Every Minute Matters’ campaign. It symbolically highlights how every minute matters during life-saving treatments.
READ | Sheffield United beats Bristol City to enter final
The campaign began during last season’s play-offs. It encourages people to use the British Heart Foundation’s online RevivR tool and to start learning CPR by the end of the football season with the play-off finals.
In the 2023 Championship play-off final, Luton Town captain Tom Lockyer had collapsed just eight minutes into the match against Coventry City. Seven months later, he had a cardiac arrest on the pitch during a Premier League game at Bournemouth.
The League One play-off final between Charlton Athletic and Leyton Orient will kickoff at 1:01pm BST on Sunday and the League Two play-off final between Wimbledon and Walsall at 3.01pm BST on Monday as a part of the same campaign.
Content Source: sportstar.thehindu.com