Queen Elizabeth II: Amateur football teams face punishment for playing on weekend after Queen’s death

Queen Elizabeth II’s state funeral will take place in London at 11am on Monday.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Two amateur football teams are facing strict disciplinary action after they played on the weekend that followed the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

The two teams were given “clear instructions” to not go ahead with the match, claimed one league official.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Sheffield International and Byron House, who play in the Sheffield and District Fair Play League, elected to play a friendly at the same time as their scheduled league game would have been held.

Sheffield International documented the friendly on Twitter, tweeting: “Silly billies. Everyone’s turned up in their match kit.”

When the league attempted to cancel the friendly, Sheffield International tweeted that they would be having a “training session” instead, following that with: “If that gets cancelled we’ll have a game of rugby seeing as that’s deemed respectful enough.”

This was in reference to rugby fixtures going ahead at the weekend, despite the nationwide cancellation of football games. As well as rugby, cricket fixtures in England were also allowed to take place on the weekend following the Queen’s passing.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The initial tweet where Sheffield International announced their intention to go ahead with their game against Byron House has amassed over 40,000 likes on Twitter at the time of writing.

The League chairman, Danny Taylor, said: "Queen Elizabeth II ruled, served and led with integrity and humility for more than seven decades.

"It is a terrible shame that these two teams could not emulate this even for a single Saturday, despite our clear instructions.

"We may or may not agree with the mass cancellation of football, but this was decided as a mark of respect and should therefore have been adhered to."

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The League issued a statement, saying: "There will be an investigation into this matter, in conjunction with the Sheffield & Hallamshire County FA, and these two teams will be dealt with in the strongest possible terms."

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.