Fear that football matches could be postponed next weekend as well

The Premier League may have to cancel games for a second time, after all of games this weekend were called off in the aftermath of the Queen's death.

On Friday morning, the Premier League confirmed that all games scheduled on Saturday September 10th and Sunday September 11th would be postponed.

The Football League and the National League followed suit, with the Football Association also confirming that grassroots football would not be going ahead.

With most other sports confirming that they would be going ahead this weekend, the news has not gone down well with many fans.

But it might not be the only weekend of postponements in the sport, with the Telegraph's Ben Rumsby reporting that there are 'major concerns' about games going ahead on the 17th and 18th of September.

Alamy)

It's due to the fact that the Queen's funeral is expected to take place on the 19th, in London, and could lead to police being redeployed, leading to a lack of policing available for games.

The Sunday is set to feature two games in the capital, with a London derby between Brentford and Arsenal kicking off the action that day.

Later in the afternoon there's a game between Chelsea and Liverpool and there would likely have to be a large police presence for both games.

Police being redeployed from elsewhere in the country would obviously also affect other games, and Manchester United and fierce rivals Leeds United are also due to play, which would be an issue.

That weekend had already seen the game between Brighton and Crystal Palace postponed due to train strikes, that had been scheduled.

Palace and Brighton's game is already postponed. Image: Alamy

It wasn't so much the trains that caused the postponement but the police's problems with how fans would travel to the match between the two rivals, and how difficult would be to police the situation without fans on the train.

There could also be some issues with the Champions League next weekend, although according to one report, English teams playing at home could instead move their games to the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

If games do get called off for two weekends then there could be a long wait for domestic football in England's top two tiers this month.

The final international break before the World Cup is coming up from the 19th, with England due to play Italy and Germany in the Nations League.

Those two fixtures will be the last preparation Gareth Southgate has with his team, before the league pauses for the World Cup, just a week before they kick off their tournament in Qatar.

Topics: Premier League

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

@Sidler28