Leicester Tigers have had to bring forward the kick-off time for the game against Newcastle Falcons in the Guinness Premiership on Saturday, December 20 to 1.30pm.

At an emergency meeting of the Ground Safety Advisory Group, the Police advised the club that, due to their reclassification of Leicester City’s game against Peterborough United on the same day to a higher risk level, they did not have the resources to safely police both games as well as the city centre on a busy Saturday before Christmas.

As Leicester City have moved their kick-off time on three consecutive occasions so far this season to accommodate Tigers, we were asked and strongly advised by the Police and Safety Advisory Group to bring forward kick-off time to 1.30pm.

The Safety Advisory Group is an advisory body, but we were very mindful that, given the strength of feeling of the group, had we ignored this advice and kept the kick-off at 2.45pm, and an incident had occurred within the city or at either stadium it would not have reflected well on Tigers.

The club apologises for the short notice and for any inconvenience this may cause supporters. In the circumstances we felt we had no choice but to accede to the request of the Safety Advisory Group.