Buckingham Palace said in a statement on Thursday evening that Queen Elizabeth II had died at the age of 96.
After hearing about the death of Queen Elizabeth II, “Operation London Bridge” will start. On the Day of National Mourning, all sports games will be canceled.
The EFL said in a statement that talks with the government will happen, but the Premier League has not yet said anything about upcoming games. It is likely that all sporting events will be canceled and will have to be rescheduled for a later date. The date for the Day of National Mourning has not yet been set.
In their statement, the EFL said, “Considerations about EFL games will be talked about with the government and the wider sports sector in the coming months, and an announcement will be made as soon as possible.” Chair of the EFL Rick Parry added his own statement, which said, “At this sad time for our country, the thoughts of everyone at the EFL and our clubs are with the Royal Family.”
As part of Operation London Bridge, all sporting events on the Day of National Mourning would be canceled. From what we know about the past, football games are likely to be moved.
When Princess Diana died, the game between Liverpool and Newcastle United that was supposed to happen later that day had to be canceled. All football league games that were supposed to happen on the day of Diana’s funeral were moved to either the Friday before or the Sunday after.
Since there were no Premier League games planned because of an international break, there was no reason to cancel them. The DCMS (Department of Culture, Media, and Sport) will tell the Premier League what to do, but football games during the weekend of her tragic death are almost certainly going to be canceled.
The Day of National Mourning will probably happen 10 days after the Queen dies, which would be on Sunday, September 18. There are already Premier League games planned for that day, so they would have to be moved if the Day of National Mourning were to be set for that day.
