As the country mourns the death of Queen Elizabeth II, whose funeral is scheduled for next Monday, English football was again affected on Monday by several postponements of European and national matches.
The first meeting to bear the brunt of the mobilization of the police for other missions was the Europa League match between Arsenal and PSV Eindhoven, scheduled for Thursday.
"This postponement follows contacts between UEFA, the Metropolitan Police and ourselves," explained the Gunners, who said that no new date has been set for the moment.
Our @EuropaLeague fixture with PSV has been postponed.
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) September 12, 2022
On Sunday, UEFA had already announced the postponement for 24 hours of the match of the second day of the Champions League between Glasgow Rangers and Napoli "due to the severe constraints in terms of police resources and organization linked to the national mourning" after the death of the queen.
Later in the afternoon, Chelsea confirmed that their Champions League match against Salzburg would take place as planned, with the agreement of the authorities.
But the Premier League announced in the wake of a new partial upheaval in its calendar, after the indefinite postponement of the 7th day which was scheduled for last weekend and this Monday.
"Seven of the ten Premier League matches scheduled for this weekend will be played, but three matches will be postponed due to events around the Queen's funeral," wrote the Premier League organizer.
The three "hottest" Matchday 8 fixtures, Brighton v Crystal Palace on Saturday, Manchester United v Leeds and Chelsea v Liverpool, Sunday, will be played at a later date.
The meetings maintained for Sunday also saw their kick-off shifted.
Brentford v Arsenal will start at 1:00 p.m. instead of 3:00 p.m. and Everton-West Ham will start at 3:15 p.m. instead of 3:00 p.m.
On Saturday, Wolverhampton host Manchester City as scheduled at 1:30 p.m., Newcastle play Bournemouth at 4:00 p.m. and Tottenham take on Leicester at 6:30 p.m.
Queen Elizabeth II died Thursday at Balmoral Castle, Scotland.
His remains are to be transported to London on Tuesday to spend the night at Buckingham Palace.
On Wednesday, a procession led by Charles III, in the early afternoon, will bring Buckingham's coffin to the Palace of Westminster where he will rest until the morning of the 19th, the day of his funeral.
The public will be able to come and gather there 24 hours a day from 4:00 p.m. GMT on Wednesday.
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