Premier League has postponed this weekend’s fixture after the death of the Queen on Thursday
The Premier League has decided to postpone this weekend’s games as a mark of respect after the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday (h/t Official Premier League).
The Queen passed away peacefully on Thursday at Balmoral Castle. Her death has prompted a period of 12-day mourning across the United Kingdom. With that in mind, the league made a decision to postpone the games this weekend.
Even though the official guidance from the government was not to mandatorily cancel games, in fact, the decision was left to the sporting bodies’ discretion, the league decided to go on with the postponement. Moreover, the club sources were concerned by the security at stadiums due to the availability issues of the police.
This is because thousands of police officers will be required for the Queen’s lying in state and for her funeral, which is expected to be taking place on the following Monday, 19th September. Security officials will also be needed to manage huge crowds that are expected to come to pay respect at Royal Palaces across the UK.
With the mourning period being 12 days, there are doubts about games taking place next weekend too. However, the Premier League has confirmed that updates regarding that will be given in due course of time.
So, Chelsea’s game against Fulham is postponed. It would be interesting to see what happens with the home Champions League game coming up on Wednesday against RB Salzburg.
The latest on that is that the three English teams – Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City, who are scheduled to play home games in this competition next midweek, may be forced to move their games to neutral venues to avoid fixture backlog in a cramped season. Dublin is one of the options.
The Blues also play against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, September 18. There is still uncertainty surrounding that fixture but as of now, there isn’t any official word surrounding the fate of gameweek eight.
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