The Premier League confirmed on September 9 that all the fixtures over this weekend stand postponed following the demise of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. The English top flight cited the postponement as a ‘mark of respect’ for the Queen. However, new reports suggest that one of the reasons for the games being called-off is that the FA feared some fans will not respect the tributes which would be held before every fixture.
As a result, England’s football governing body decided to go ahead with cancelling all the games, a decision which didn’t go down well with the fans as well as the footballing fraternity. Some even called for the games to proceed as scheduled as it will be the best way to pay tributes to the Queen who loved the sport.
Shamrock Rovers supporters’ offensive songs fueled fears of ‘international embarrassment’ in the Premier League
Premier League’s decision to suspend the games came after despite the Royal Family releasing a statement that there are no obligations as such to call-off any events. However, the English top flight unanimously went ahead and released their official statement confirming the calling-off of the games slated for this weekend.
As soon as the Premier League released their note, the EFL and WSL too followed in the footsteps of the top tier’s decision to cancel the game. EFL stated that the games scheduled on September 9 and 10 are being postponed until further notice. While both the Premier League and the EFL have clearly mentioned that they are trying to pay their respects to the Queen through this move, there are some other reasons as well.
According to multiple reports, an incident which took place during Shamrock Rovers’ Europe Conference League clash against Swedish side Djurgardens on Thursday forced the Premier League to go ahead with cancelling the games. The Shamrock Rovers’ supporters in shocking incident sang vile songs while a minute’s silence was being held in the memory of the Queen.
Moreover, Arsenal’s Europa League game against FC Zurich also witnessed boos in the closing stages after the news of Queen’s passing broke out in the crowd. The English top flight too feared fans’ dissent during the scheduled fixtures which could then led to an ‘international embarrassment’. It was quite evident as well from the fact that some of the Premier League clubs mourning the Queen’s demise on social media handles turned-off the ‘comment’ option.
Games in Scotland too have be called-off as the Scottish Premiership too joined English leagues in sharing the sentiment of condolences. However, some of the footballing world’s famous personalities have disagreed with football games being disrupted this weekend. Football representer Piers Morgan took it to Twitter to express his disappointment as he wrote: