Manchester/Oslo (VG) The Premier League has confirmed this weekend’s matches have been postponed following the death of Queen Elizabeth.
There will be no Premier League matches this weekend. It was decided after the meeting that started at 12 – Norwegian time. The reason is the death of Queen Elizabeth. She passed away on Thursday at the age of 96.
“As our longest-serving Kings, she has been an inspiration and left behind a lifelong legacy,” Premier League chairman Richard Masters said in a statement.
A full round of the Premier League was initially planned, including a big match between Manchester City, Earling Braut Haaland and Tottenham in the programme. Matches in the Women’s Premier League have also been postponed.
Manchester City have informed VG that the club has canceled all planned media activities – including coach Pep Guardiola’s press conference on Friday afternoon.
Monday’s match between Leeds and Nottingham Forest will not be played either. The cancellations worsened the clubs’ already busy calendar. The World Cup in Qatar, which takes place in November and December, means that more matches must be scaled back into fewer days.
City’s general manager, Ferran Soriano, recently told the podcast Dr.. football – Before the death of the queen – That he made all the analyzes and calculations, but the reality was simple.
No one in the industry knows how to deal with this, Soriano said.
Now the Premier League clubs have an extra game to deal with.
As per UK government guidelines, it is not mandatory to cancel or postpone sporting events during the period of national mourning. It is up to each organization to decide how they want to deal with it. However, the guidelines require organizations to consider postponing planned events until the day of the funeral.
When King George died in 1952, rugby and hockey matches were postponed, while football matches went as planned, according to The Guardian. Football teams honored the king with the national anthem and fans sang “Stay with me.”
When Princess Diana died in a tragic car accident on Sunday, August 31, 1997, the Liverpool-Newcastle match, which was scheduled to take place on the same day, was cancelled.
British authorities declared national mourning until the day of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral. At the same time, the royal mourning period continues even a week after the funeral.
Thursday’s Europa League matches with English teams went as planned, but there was a minute’s silence before the match and Arsenal and Manchester United players wore black armbands. After the games, planned press conferences for the directors were cancelled.
Prior to today’s press release, it was already clear that the championship match between Burnley and Norwich and the second-division match Tranmere Rovers-Stockport County, which was played on Friday, had been postponed.
Saturday’s horse racing in Great Britain has also been cancelled, but will take place as planned on Sunday. The queen herself was heavily involved in equestrian sports.
Already on Thursday, the Tour of Britain’s cycling race decided to cancel the remaining stages.
The BMW PGA golf tournament, which takes place just outside of London, postponed play on Friday but said in a statement it hoped to resume the tournament at the weekend.
Norway’s Victor Hovland is joint lead in the tournament. News of the Queen’s death came shortly after the Thursday tour began.
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