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Cancelling Football This Weekend Was a Terrible Mistake

by Toby Young
11 September 2022 6:52 PM

Like many football fans, I was bitterly disappointed that all games were cancelled this weekend out of respect for the late Queen.

Why was football singled out for this treatment when other sports – test cricket, horse racing, rugby, golf, the Great North Run – went ahead? It’s hard to dismiss the suspicion that it’s because football is still a working class sport and its woke governing bodies feared that the great unwashed might not behave in an appropriately respectful manner.

But the behaviour of football fans at the West Ham game against FCSB in the Europa Conference League group stages on Thursday night was impeccable, with the crowd spontaneously bursting into a rendition of ’God Save the Queen’.

For my own part, I was looking forward to taking my four children to QPR’s home game against Huddersfield in Shepherd’s Bush on Saturday where I was confident the crowd would observe a minute’s silence and then follow the example of the West Ham fans. Not only would I have relished that opportunity to pay my own respects to the Queen, but it would have been something memorable for my children to witness, a way of fixing this historic event in their minds. As it is, there is no single experience associated with this moment – no way of marking the occasion that they’ve participated in – that they’ll be able to tell their own children about.

For depriving families across the nation of that memorable experience, I resent the footballing authorities. Worse, the Queen’s death will now be forever mixed up in my own mind with this lost opportunity. Far from showing respect for her, they have tarnished her memory.

I’m not the only one who feels this way, as MailOnline makes clear.

Former England footballer Peter Crouch has criticised the decision, and said that football matches could have been a place for Brits to come together and mourn the loss of the Queen.

It comes as 60,000 people ran the 13.1 mile route from Newcastle to South Shields in the Great North Run, which was “held in a subdued form“. Horse racing, cricket, rugby and golf also continued over the weekend, with silences held and black armbands worn.

The former footballer said on Twitter: “I know it’s only a game and some things are much bigger but imagine all our games went ahead this weekend.

“Black armbands, silences observed, national anthem, Royal band playing etc to the millions around the world watching? Isn’t that a better send off?”

Mr. Crouch has played for eight English football teams, and played for the national team for five years, starting in 2005, during which time he scored 22 goals.

The sportsman is also one of 33 to have scored 100 or more goals in the Premier League.

The former striker’s views have been widely shared, with other people questioning the FA’s decision to postpone while other sporting bodies continued their events.

Others, including Piers Morgan and Gary Neville, also pitched in to argue that the cancellation was unnecessary.

TV host Morgan lashed out at the “ridiculous decision” while former Manchester United player Neville added: “Sport can demonstrate better than most the respect the Queen deserves.”

Worth reading in full.

I’m afraid this tone deaf decision is yet more evidence, if any more were necessary, that the footballing authorities in the UK are a bunch of complete numpties.

Tags: FootballGary NevillePeter CrouchPiers MorganThe Queen

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16 Comments
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transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago

Somewhat tangential to this article, but it strikes me that in the US there are some right of centre media outlets and personalities with big followings. I just don’t see the same in the UK. Perhaps I just don’t know enough about the UK media but where is the UK’s Daily Wire, or Joe Rogan, or Jordan Peterson, or Fox News, or Tucker Carlson, or Ben Shapiro – I don’t mean just entities with similar opinions but similar budgets and followings.

16
0
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

GB News is pretty good. Mark Steyn has a regular spot, and he freely takes aim at the kill shots -er- Covid Vaccines in his wonderful satirical way. Neil Oliver is also an excellent contributor.

30
-1
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  Brett_McS

I’ve seen Oliver and yes he’s tremendous and I’m sure Steyn is too, but ask the man in the street who they are and most won’t have a clue. Ask the same question in the US and most will know who Tucker Carlson is. That’s the difference.

14
-1
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Neil Oliver is a household name.

17
-2
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  Brett_McS

I strongly doubt that but I will ask everyone I know whether they have heard of him.
My wife hasn’t heard of him and she has even watched at least one video clip of him.
Tucker Carlson has twenty times the following on Twitter compared to Oliver, and the US population is not 20x the UK
Fox News is mainstream, GB News is far from that.

9
0
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Known for various BBC shows like this:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1842562/

2
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  Brett_McS

I had only heard of him because of his anti lockdown stance

Where are the British equivalents of Jordan Peterson or Joe Rogan? I mean in terms of their following. The political right in the U.K. is more or less dead because it’s ostensibly represented by a political party whose leaders despise their base and are largely globalist socialists.

15
0
EppingBlogger
EppingBlogger
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

In the UK the BBC is a dominant broadcaster. Newspapers are controlled by owners and editors who are fully paid up to the political class so don’t expect any push-back from them.

13
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago
Reply to  EppingBlogger

Indeed
The BBC is a hugely bad influence
GB News is a start, hope it galvanises something

17
0
crisisgarden
crisisgarden
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

That’s what Naomi Wolf was saying recently about the UK, which she worries about more than the US for that exact reason. We have such a homogenised media; GB News goes some way to addressing this but if you ask me, nowhere near far enough.

5
0
Judy Watson
Judy Watson
2 years ago
Reply to  transmissionofflame

Could try Alex Belfield.org.

Yes it’s pay per month or you can watch a censored freebie on youtube.

2
0
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
2 years ago

You don’t have to guess about DW’s neutral stance if you have seen “Run, Hide, Fight” and/or “Shut In”. As an indication, those two, along with “Terror on the Prairie” have strong female leads. The earlier film “Arroyo” is politically neutral. The common thread is that none try to shoehorn reality into a political message.
The DW audience is not huge, but it is very active, conservative and family-oriented. I’m guessing there would be a large percentage of Disney subscribers amongst them who are about to jump ship, and bring a lot of their friends and extended family with them.
The other smart thing DW has done is to refuse to take investors’ money. They live by subscription only so that they can control their content.

11
0
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
2 years ago

Steve Mcqeen where art thou 🥺

6
0
Freddy Boy
Freddy Boy
2 years ago
Reply to  Freddy Boy

Where art “U” seeing as I missed it from McQueen , it is early though 🤦🏼‍♂️

9
0
ebygum
ebygum
2 years ago

The first paragraph is exactly what I think about Convid. There’s the actual evidence….then there’s the ‘safe and effective, everyone get a booster’…based more on wishful thinking than anything else. Two entirely different ‘worlds’….

I saw a Tweet from JK Rowling yesterday…someone has tweeted her picture, with her address on, then overlaid it with a ‘how to’ bomb making manual, and a picture of a pipe bomb…..and guess what? As she pointed out, the account is still active and this isn’t considered enough to get you taken off Twitter?!

22
0

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