Meetings are being held on Monday.
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II could lead to a second weekend of football postponements across the United Kingdom due to a shortage of police resources.
The Queen’s state funeral will take place at Westminster Abbey next Monday, with police involved in discussions with football clubs and the game’s governing bodies over the possibility of more matches being called off.
The funeral and a host of events leading up to it are expected to place a huge strain on police resources in London and beyond, with officers from other areas expected to be redeployed to the capital to help.
A report by The Times says football authorities intend for as many games as possible to go ahead as planned, but that clubs’ safety advisory groups will make decisions on a game-by-game basis.
It was announced on Friday that all last weekend’s games – from professional down to grassroots – would be postponed as a mark of respect to the monarch. Other major sports, including rugby and cricket, opted to go ahead as planned.
Though lack of police resources could lead to a host of Premier League and EFL postponements, the WSL, National League and grassroots games should be able to go ahead as planned.
It was confirmed over the weekend that Rangers’ Champions League fixture against Napoli would be moved from Tuesday to Wednesday, with the Italian club’s supporters barred from the game in an attempt to reduce the number of police officers needed for the game.
The Queen died at her residence at Balmoral and the decision to postpone Rangers’ game by 24 hours is understood to be down to the number of officers needed by Police Scotland until her coffin is flown from Edinburgh to London on Tuesday.
Liverpool are also scheduled to play at home against Ajax on Tuesday, with Chelsea and Manchester City also scheduled to play home matches in the competition the next day. There will also be a full programme of EFL fixtures played during midweek. It is unclear at this stage if any of those games will be postponed over policing issues.
If this weekend’s Premier League games were called off, the league would not return until the first weekend in October as there is scheduled to be an international break after this weekend.
