There were plenty of sports impacts in the United Kingdom last week around the news of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, and one particularly big one was with the Premier League. That league postponed all of its matches last week. And on Monday, they announced that while they will play seven of their 10 planned fixtures this coming weekend, some of those will be moving times, and three matches will be postponed entirely due to events around the funeral next Monday.
The #PL will resume this weekend after a pause to the season as a mark of respect following the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Seven of the 10 Matchweek 8 fixtures will be played, with three postponed due to events surrounding The Queen’s funeral.
— Premier League (@premierleague) September 12, 2022
Here’s more from that release on the specific postponed matches:
Matches postponed on Sunday 18 September are Chelsea’s matches against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, and Manchester United’s home match v Leeds United.
Brighton & Hove Albion’s fixture against Crystal Palace, that was due to be played at 15:00 BST on Saturday 17 September, will also remain postponed.
Following extensive consultation with clubs, police, local Safety Advisory Groups and other relevant authorities, there was no other option but to postpone the three fixtures.
The moved matches are Brentford-Arsenal (shifted to a 12 p.m. BT/7 a.m. ET kickoff) and Everton-West Ham (moved to 2:15 p.m. BT/9:15 a.m. ET). It’s also notable that this came after an earlier report about a potential lack of TV trucks for Premier League matches from Matt Hughes of The Daily Mail:
Sportsmail has learned that the Premier League’s main rights holder Sky Sports are running out of the outside broadcast trucks required to deliver live coverage as many are being used by their sister channel, Sky News.
…In addition Sky have two live Championship matches on Saturday, plus Scottish Premier League and Women’s Super League fixtures the following day.
Sky News are providing unprecedented coverage of events across the country building up to the Queen’s funeral next Monday, which has put a strain on their resources.
The lack of TV trucks is understood to have emerged as an additional complicating factor during talks over football’s resumption following last weekend’s shutdown, which will continue this morning with a briefing from government.
The strain on police resources is the biggest obstacle to Premier League games taking place as planned next weekend, as up to 10,000 police officers will be deployed in London to manage what has been described as an unprecedented security operation in the capital ahead of the funeral.
So it’s notable that seven of these matches are still going on despite the security and production challenges. As per usual, most matches are likely to be on Peacock in the U.S., with some on USA and Telemundo or Universo and possibly one or two on NBC. Last week’s cancelled matches included five fixtures only on Peacock and six on USA, with most of the USA ones also on Telemundo or Universo. NBC announces on their Premier League page each week where specific matches will air or stream.
[PremierLeague.com; graphic from NBC Sports Group Pressbox]
