Matches have been postponed for
every imaginable reason - and a few unimaginable ones - but by far the
main reason is the weather. Frozen conditions top that list. The referee
has sole responsibility for judging if a pitch is playable - in particular
if it is safe for the participants to play on - though with modern
undersoil heating it's not always because the pitch is frozen and
unplayable that forces the postponement. Unsafe terraces/stands or
approaches to the ground will also force a postponement, the police and
local authority also having responsibility in these areas. At Christmas
2010 what would have been my first visit to Hillsborough for a match was
prevented by a postponement when the Sheffield City Council deemed that
the match could not take place because of frozen and burst pipes which
served the toilets and refreshment kiosks.
Again
with waterlogged pitches the referee is the person who makes the
decisions. Some decisions might to open to debate, some perhaps not so as
will be seen from the picture of Hillsborough after the River Don flooded.
Carlisle United's Brunton Park is another League ground prone to flooding
from a nearby river and the consequences are severe for the clubs affected
by such flooding. Its not just a case of letting the ground dry but
specialist cleaning is needed because of the amount of sludge left behind
which is usually contaminated with raw sewage.
*********
High winds occasionally cause a match
to be called off usually because of structural damage to the ground
causing
public safety concerns. Rare, but a example was the Tranmere v
Rochdale fixture that should have been played on Boxing Day 2011 but
damage to a roof caused safety problems which saw the match postponed. Back in 2004 gale force winds had an
more significant impact on League football....
High winds, particularly in the
Midlands and the North, hit the country on Saturday March 20th 2004.
Division 3 matches at Mansfield and Northampton were abandoned, tragically
an Everton fan was killed before the Leicester v Everton Premier League
match and a number of matches were postponed. One of the postponed matches
was the First Division fixture between Stoke City and WBA, the first
postponement at the Britannia Stadium. Referee Keith Hill called off the
match 90 minutes before scheduled kick-off time explaining "The high
winds are causing channelled air in parts of the stadium, making it
difficult to stand in some areas of the field of play. Our prime concern
is for the safety of players and spectators, and both managers agreed it
would be impossible to play football in such conditions." Further
north the Burnley v Wimbledon First Division encounter was another victim
of the winds. Burnley's chief executive Dave Edmundson said: "The
gusting winds were 70 to 75mph in the upper tier of the James Hargreaves
and Jimmy McIlroy Stands and a 16-stone person had been up there and
almost blown off their feet."
There was a time, before
global warming came along, when winters in this country were long and cold
with snow a regular feature in all parts of the country. By far the worst
winter to affect football was in the 1962/63 season when a 'big freeze'
decimated football in this country for three months with hundreds of
matches being called off or abandoned.
The freezing conditions hit
the country just before Christmas 1962. For
the next three months the list of postponements indicate just how bad
things were. Only three FA Cup third round ties were played on the
scheduled date, January 5th, with the last tie in that round being played
on March 11th. The Lincoln v Coventry tie was called off 15 times and
fourteen of the other ties suffered ten or more postponements (also
causing problems for programme printers, see right). From December
8th, when they beat Spurs 1-0, to 16th February when they lost 3-2 at
Arsenal, Bolton Wanderers did not play a single competitive match.
Long
before the days when undersoil heating became the norm various ideas were tried to
beat the freeze - including a tar-burner at Chelsea, flame-throwers at
Blackpool and braziers at Stoke's Victoria Ground (pictured). However, even if a pitch was made playable the terraces and
surrounds to the ground were often left treacherous, forcing a
postponement.
The Football Pools were a
far more important part of life in the 1960s than they are now and the
postponements obviously hit them hard as well. After three Saturdays in
succession when the coupons were declared void the 'Pools Panel' came into
being. The first panel of experts consisted of four former players (Ted
Drake, Tom Finney, Tommy Lawton and George Young) and a former ref (Arthur
Ellis) and determined the results for four more Saturdays and became a
regular feature in the winters to come. In their first Saturday of
deliberations, January 26th 1963, the chairman of the Panel, Lord Brabazon,
declared seven draws, 23 home wins and eight away wins.
It wasn't until March 16th -
nearly three months after the big freeze started - when a complete
programme of football was played again. The season was eventually extended
to the end of May.
*********
The
1946/47 season - the first post-war League season - was another
decimated by a bitter winter. Well over a hundred League matches were
postponed and it wasn't until mid-June - seven weeks after the Cup Final
was played - that the season finally came to an end. At one point the
Government asked for matches to be postponed. With no floodlights
re-arranged matches were played on midweek afternoons but with coal stocks
low and industry almost at a standstill the Government wanted to stop
midweek football to prevent absenteeism from work by the supporters. The
fight for the League title was a close one with four clubs separated by
just two points in the final table, the destination of the championship
only being decided on the last day of the season. Stoke needed to win
their last match at Sheffield United on Saturday June 14th to win the
title on goal average - they lost, and the title went to Liverpool
(League table and results). Most in the Potteries believed that
they had thrown away their chance of the title when they had transferred
Stanley Matthews to Blackpool for £11,500 just a month before the end of
the season. On Merseyside, though, many thought the deciding factor was a
more unusual one - diet. In the summer of 1946 Liverpool had spent a month
in the United States where they had played - and won - ten friendly
matches. During that time their staple diet had been steak and orange
juice which were never on the menu in Britain because of rationing. Many
believed that diet gave the players the added strength they needed to be
successful in such a long season.
*********
The British record for
postponements for a single fixture not surprising is for a match in the
'Arctic' north of the country. The Scottish Cup 2nd Round tie between
Inverness Thistle and Falkirk was scheduled for 6th January 1979. However
after 29 postponements it was finally played on February 22nd 1979.
Falkirk won 4-0 in the 30th attempt to stage the match. Three days later
Falkirk lost 1-0 at Dundee in the first attempt to stage the Third Round
tie!
*********
In contrast early August
2022 saw a heatwave helping to cause the postponement of a League fixture.
News at home in late July/early August 2022 was dominated by the weather
and sport - record high temperatures saw a drought develop in much of the
country while the Commonwealth Games filled the TV screens - well the BBC
ones anyway! The Commonwealth Games was hosted by Birmingham but many
events were staged outside of the city including rugby sevens at the
Coventry Building Society Arena. The owners of the Arena - Wasps rugby
club - had leased the ground to the Commonwealth Games organisers from
July 8th to August 14th. The trouble with that was the Football League
season was due to start early to accommodate a mid-season break for the
World Cup finals in Qatar and another tenant of the ground - Coventry City
FC - needed the Arena to stage their first home Championship match of the
season against Rotherham United on Sunday August 7th. An agreement was
reached to allow that match to be played but the reality proved different.
Playing rugby on it - and the heat - had made the pitch unsafe and
umplayable with one Coventry official saying "When
you walk on it, there are craters and divots, which they put an awful lot
of sand on during the week. But that's all it is, it's a sand surface."
The match was postponed.
*********
Some
fixtures are jinxed. The Division 1 match between Spurs and eventual
champions Everton at White Hart Lane in 1969/70 was one of them. The match
was originally scheduled for Saturday 29th November 1969 but a heavy fall
of snow just before kick off time forced a postponement. The re-scheduled
date was Wednesday 17th December and the match started but only lasted 30
minutes before being abandoned when a fault at a sub-station caused
floodlight failure. Wednesday 7th January 1970 was the next date pencilled
in for the fixture but that one didn't happen either when Spurs had to
play an FA Cup replay that evening. The match was finally played on
Wednesday 11th March and after a near three month wait and three different
programmes being printed Spurs lost one-nil! Ironically Spurs' next match
was three days later and was the return fixture against Everton at
Goodison. That went ahead at the first attempt and Spurs lost that one as
well, 2-3.
*********
An unexploded Second World
War bomb found near Sheffield United's Bramall Lane home forced the
postponement of their Second Division game against Oldham on Sunday
February 9th 1985. Safely disposed of, the match was played three days
later.
*********
Thankfully many serious infectious
diseases spread by person to person contact are a thing of the past in
this country. But there was a time when football matches were postponed to
prevent large crowds gathering and spreading disease. Past examples of
this were at Blackburn in 1965/66 due to a polio outbreak and
Middlesbrough in 1897/98 because of smallpox.
*********
Few postponed matches
make the headlines but that certainly wasn’t the case when the League 1
fixture between Southend United and Bolton Wanderers scheduled for January
21st 2017 was called off because of the weather. A morning inspection by
referee Charles Breakspear saw the match postponed due to a frozen Roots
Hall pitch which was obviously disappointing for the fans, particularly
those making the long trip from the north-west. What hit the headlines
though was that the Southend head groundsman was effectively blamed for
the postponement and was sacked by the club. Sacked despite there not
having been a frozen pitch postponement at Roots Hall since 2013 and
sacked despite only the week previously Southend having said that their
groundstaff had ‘worked tirelessly’ in their efforts to prevent
their previous match falling foul of the weather. Head groundsman Ken Hare
had been at Southend for 27 years with his efforts being rewarded with a
club statement saying ‘People generally lose their position as a result
of not doing their job.’ A nationwide campaign – with many Bolton fans
at the forefront - failed to get him his job back although part of the
‘mutually acceptable’ settlement reached four months later included a pair
of Southend season tickets for him!
*********
The
prize for the most embarrassing postponement must surely go to Manchester
United who on Sunday May 15th 2016 were due to play their last Premier
League fixture of the season with only the FA Cup final to follow. That
was the plan, but while a 75,000 crowd was assembling at Old Trafford for
the fixture with Bournemouth a 'suspect device' was found in one of the
toilets with a controlled explosion being carried out on the device. When
it was discovered part of the ground was evacuated and the match was
called off without a ball being kicked in anger soon after. But what could
have been a serious terrorist threat turned into a farce when the truth
came out. The 'suspect device' was in fact a dummy bomb which had been used in a
security training exercise at Old Trafford and which had unknowingly been
left at the ground by mistake. No-one had discovered the very
realistic-looking pipe-bomb (as pictured) until just before scheduled kick
off - and then nobody was taking any chances. Two days later United beat
Bournemouth 3-1 in the re-arranged fixture.
*********
The usual definition of a
postponement is when a match is called off before the ref sounds the kick
off whistle. But many reports of the Manchester United v Bournemouth
fixture (above) described the match as abandoned as the build up to the
match was well under way with the players in the changing room and fans in
their seats. The same was true when Ajax were due to play Groningen in a
Dutch League match in April 2008. Thousands of fans were already at the
ground but the problem was that many had brought toilet rolls along with
them which were thrown onto the pitch and in the stands. A little unusual
perhaps but not a great problem until some of the toilet rolls were set
alight causing damage in the stands and forcing fans onto the pitch to
escape the flames. A number of fans suffered from burns and smoke
inhalation and for the safety of the supporters the match was called off.
That is postponed not abandoned!
*********
Another bizarre
postponement - the Torquay v Portsmouth Worthington Cup First Round
fixture which was due to be played at Plainmoor on Wednesday August 11th 1999. It was
the date of a total eclipse of the sun which was visible in the Torquay
area, the first in Britain since 1927. Despite the fact that the date and
location of the eclipse was probably known about for hundreds of years the
local police left it until shortly before the match to request a
postponement. They decided that they didn't have the manpower to police both
the match and the influx of visitors expected in the area to witness the
eclipse. They couldn't put off the eclipse so a postponement of the match
it was! The match was eventually played on Tuesday 17th August.
*********
There
was a time when you had to be a Manchester United or Arsenal to lose
enough players to international duty to be able to postpone their club
match. Times have changed.
Nuneaton had their Vanarama National League
North home matches against York City - that's a sixth-tier fixture - postponed
two seasons in a row because on each occasion three of their players were
away on international duty. On September 8th 2018 they were without Theo
Wharton and Harrison Panayiotou who were in the St Kitts & Nevis squad
for their match against Puerto Rico while Kairo Mitchell was with Grenada
in Curacao. The previous season, on March 24th 2018, Nuneaton also had
three players absent on international duty on the day they should have
played York - Luther
Wildin made his debut for Antigua & Barbuda (against Bermuda), Kairo
Mitchell was on his travels again turning out for Grenada against Belize while Ryan Johnson was on duty
for the Northern Ireland Under 21 side.
Luther Wildin later also played a part in
a controversial international call-up postponement. The rules in the
2019/20 season were still that clubs who had three players called away to
international duty could postpone the matches where those players were
unavailable. Stevenage - yes that's the Stevenage who had the worst
playing record in League 2 in 2019/20 and only escaped relegation to
non-league football when Macclesfield had 17 points docked - had three of
their players called up for international duty and so postponed their
League 2 fixture against Oldham on November 16th 2019. But that
postponement saw them end up in front of an EFL discplinary hearing facing
a possible points deduction and £15,000 fine. The three Stevenage players
called up were Noor Husain (Afghanistan), Terence Vancooten (Guyana) as
well as Antigua & Barbuda's Luther Wildin who had moved to Broadhall
Way from Nuneaton. The problem was that Luther Wildin was injured and so
didn't travel to the Caribbean for his match there. So only two players
were on international duty and so the EFL believed that Stevenage were wrong
to postpone the match. After a costly disciplinary hearing - barristers
represented each side - it took just 15 minutes of deliberation for the
court to decide on Stevenage's fate....not guilty. Although injured the
Antigua & Barbuda FA had never cancelled the call-up for Luther Wildin
and so technically Stevenage still had three players called-up for
international duty and the postponement was valid.
*********
Some of our football grounds are
antiquated and when a Victorian sewer under Anfield's Kop collapsed
Liverpool had to postpone their first three home Division 1 matches of the
1987/88 season while repairs were made. It delayed the home debut of one
of Liverpool's legendary players - John Barnes - who eventually made a
scoring home debut against Oxford United on Saturday September 12th 1987.
The postponements didn't seem to cause too many problems for Liverpool -
they were unbeaten in their first 29 League matches of the season and won
the League title by an impressive margin -
Liverpool results & table 1987/88.
Another club who saw their first
League match of the season called off was Tottenham at the start of the
1988/89 season. Work on re-developing the East Stand in the summer hadn't
been completed and that let to a refusal of a safety certificate and so
the postponement of the first League match of the season at White Hart
Lane - against Coventry City on August 27th 1988. As with Liverpool the
disappointment was made worse by the fact that it delayed the debut of an
important summer signing - Spurs had signed Paul Gascoigne from Newcastle
in the close season.
*********
A
number of matches in England have been abandoned because of rioting fans
but thankfully football has not been affected by civil unrest - until 2011
that is. In August 2011 riots in the streets of Tottenham spread to other
parts of the country. The rioting coincided with the start of the football
season and because of the need for the police to concentrate their
resources on the public disorder rather than policing football matches
several fixtures were postponed in areas of potential conflict. Carling
Cup ties in London (Charlton v Reading, Crystal Palace v Crawley and West
Ham v Aldershot) and Bristol (City v Swindon and Rovers v Watford) were
all postponed as was Tottenham's opening Premier League game at White Hart
Lane against Everton which was scheduled for Saturday 13th August 2011.
The highest profile casualty though was England's prestigious friendly
against Holland which should have gone ahead at Wembley on Wednesday
August 10th. That wasn't the only international casualty. Such is London's
claim to be the home of world football a friendly between Ghana and
Nigeria also had to be called off - it had been due to have been played on
August 9th at Watford's Vicarage Road ground.
*********
Back in the 1946/47 season West Ham
United were due to make the long trip to Newcastle for a Division 2
fixture on March 8th 1947. However the match was called off because of a
frozen pitch - but Newcastle forgot to tell the Londoners. West Ham spent
£77 travelling to St James Park but when they arrived at the ground the
place was deserted!
*********
Not all clubs have been
disappointed when requests for postponements get turned down.
Rotherham United were due to visit Peterborough United's London Road
ground on Boxing Day 1999 for a Division 3 fixture but asked for a
postponement because their squad hat been struck down by flu. The Football
League turned down their request and the match went ahead - and Rotherham
won 5-0!
*********
The Football League has threatened
draconian measures against clubs when postponements were far from
intentional. Back on January 14th 1981 a blizzard prevented the Hull City
coach getting over the Pennines resulting in their Third Division fixture
at Burnley being postponed. The Football League were not too chuffed at
Hull's lack of foresight, fining the club £2500 and warning them that if
the same was to happen again a points deduction or even expulsion from the
League would be considered.
*********
It caused problems all round in
Scottish football when Rangers found themselves in the Third Division of
the Scottish League at the start of the 2012/13 season. Not the least of
the problems were for the administrators of the clubs they visited who -
more used to attendance of two men and a dog - found themselves making
arrangements for almost unheard-of capacity crowds. It proved a little too
much for Elgin City for their top-of-the-table clash scheduled for Sunday
November 25th 2012. An error saw them sell over 25% more tickets for the
match than the 4500 capacity Borough Briggs ground could hold. Fearful of
the consequences of a 1000 or so ticket holders being refused admission to
the ground the fixture, which was due to be shown live on TV, was called
off on health and safety fears.
Rangers' progression through the
divisions following their demotion saw some dreams come true. On Saturday
December 14th 2013 it was the turn of Stenhousemuir. Stenhousemuir v
Rangers in a Scottish League match at Ochilview was a match few would have
dreamed would ever be played. So great was the demand for tickets that a
temporary stand was built to house the extra spectators. Live TV coverage
on BT Sport of the Scottish League One match was to give Stenhousemuir a
taste of the big-time. Sadly the weather didn't co-operate. Gail force
winds damaged the roofing on the temporary stand and the match was
postponed for safety reasons. The dream became a nightmare!
*********
A significant part of the financial
losses of a postponement can be the cost of the wasted programmes. If the
date of re-arranged fixture is close to the postponed match often the same
programme will be used with a supplement added to update the club news and
squad details. If a new programme is printed the original one will have a
value to collectors although how valuable it is will depend on how many
the club try to sell compared to how many go to the recycler. One
particularly rare single-sheet programme was auctioned in 2005 and sold
for £320. The match was due to have been played in occupied Guernsey on
June 8th 1943 but became the only match in the British Isles ever to have
been called off by the Nazis. Guernsey side Les Vauxbelets Old Boys
Association was due to have played a Continental XI consisting of slave
workers who had been brought into the Channel Islands from various parts
of occupied Europe, but the Germans wouldn't allow it to take place. Did
it give the idea for the film 'The Great Escape' I Wonder?
*********
Middlesbrough called
off their Premier League game at Blackburn without permission the day
before the scheduled date of Saturday 21st December 1996. Manager Bryan
Robson claimed that they were unable to field a competitive team as they
had 23 players unavailable because of injury, illness or suspension. At
the Premier League inquiry in January Blackburn argued that they should
have been awarded the points but the match was ordered to be played and
Middlesbrough suffered a 3 point deduction and a £50,000 fine.
Middlesbrough drew at Blackburn when that match was played but for a club
in the relegation area that three point deduction was to see them
relegated. Had they had played the match in December - and had not
suffered a thumping - they would have stayed up. It proved to be a sad
season for Middlesbrough - relegated and beaten finalists in both the FA
Cup and League Cup.
*********
There isn't always universal
agreement as to if a match should be postponed Back in March 1974
Halifax Town and Exeter City asked the Football League to postpone matches
because their respective playing squads had been decimated by injury and
illness. In Exeter's case they had medical certificates for 9 unfit
players which left them with just 9 fit players, two of them goalkeepers.
Halifax were given permission to postpone their Division 3 match at
Bournemouth on Saturday March 30th 1974 but Exeter were refused permission
to call of their matches against Peterborough the same day and Scunthorpe
3 days later. They played, and lost, their home match against Peterborough
but refused to travel to Scunthorpe to fulfil their Division 4 fixture at
the Old Showground scheduled for Tuesday April 2nd. There was speculation
that Exeter's punishment might be expulsion from the Football League but
later in April it was announced that the Devon side had been fined £5000
for not fulfilling the fixture and in addition were ordered to compensate
Scunthorpe £1094 for the lost gate receipts and expenses. It was a
massive sum for a Division 4 side to pay. Uniquely the two points were
awarded to Scunthorpe and the match was not ordered to be played. At the
time it was the only fixture in Football League history that was never
played, a record that was the last for 45 years,,,,,,,
.....Bolton
Wanderers were in a financial mess as the 2018/19 season came to a
close. At the end of April 2019 with unpopular Chairman Ken Anderson
wanting to sell the club which owed £1.2 million to the taxman, Bolton
players were threatening a strike as they - and other club staff - hadn't
been paid since February. Staff issued a statement saying that the
situation was 'creating mental, emotional and financial burdens for
people through no fault of their own' and there were stories of a food
bank being set up for staff at their home stadium while at their training
ground the players couldn't have a hot shower as the club couldn't afford
to provide hot water. The players carried out the strike threat and their
scheduled home Championship match against Brentford was called off the day
before it was due to have been played on Saturday April 27th. The match
was rescheduled for Tuesday May 7th which was two days after the official
end of the League season. However the Football League didn't accept that.
With Bolton already relegated and the re-arranged match being in doubt
because safety staff were planning their own boycott of the fixture the
match was cancelled. Brentford were awarded the three points with a
nominal 1-0 victory and so Bolton Wanderers v Brentford became only the
second match not played at the end of an otherwise completed Football
League season......
....and just when you think that it couldn't get any worse two weeks later
Bolton went into administration, that guaranteeing them a 12 point
deduction at the start of the 2019/20 League season.
Bolton
weren't alone with their financial problems going into the 2019/20
season with their near neighbours Bury also suffering from a serious lack of
cash. Despite finishing second in League 2 in 2018/19 and earning
promotion during the close season the Shakers had entered a Company
Voluntary Agreement (CVA) with their creditors which saw them punished
with a points deduction by the Football League. So both Bolton and Bury
started the 2019/20 campaign with a minus 12 points in the League 1 table
but worse was to follow for Bury. Both clubs were required to
satisfy the Football League that the clubs could settle their debts and
would have the financial resources to be viable in the new season. Bolton
passed the test but Bury didn't which saw their opening day League 1 match
on Saturday August 3rd 2019 at home to Milton Keynes Dons being
'suspended' (meaning postponed!). In total Bury's first six League and Cup
matches of the 2019/20 season were suspended before, on August 27th, the
Football League lost patience with the club and withdrew Bury's membership
of the competition they had been members of since 1894. Tragic! Bury
fixtures 2019/20.
"I felt a lump in my throat as the ball
went in." Terry Venables
For
dozens more hilarious 'foot-in-mouth' quotes click on
Colemanballs
Again
with waterlogged pitches the referee is the person who makes the
decisions. Some decisions might to open to debate, some perhaps not so as
will be seen from the picture of Hillsborough after the River Don flooded.
Carlisle United's Brunton Park is another League ground prone to flooding
from a nearby river and the consequences are severe for the clubs affected
by such flooding. Its not just a case of letting the ground dry but
specialist cleaning is needed because of the amount of sludge left behind
which is usually contaminated with raw sewage.
Long
before the days when undersoil heating became the norm various ideas were tried to
beat the freeze - including a tar-burner at Chelsea, flame-throwers at
Blackpool and braziers at Stoke's Victoria Ground (pictured). However, even if a pitch was made playable the terraces and
surrounds to the ground were often left treacherous, forcing a
postponement. 
Some
fixtures are jinxed. The Division 1 match between Spurs and eventual
champions Everton at White Hart Lane in 1969/70 was one of them. The match
was originally scheduled for Saturday 29th November 1969 but a heavy fall
of snow just before kick off time forced a postponement. The re-scheduled
date was Wednesday 17th December and the match started but only lasted 30
minutes before being abandoned when a fault at a sub-station caused
floodlight failure. Wednesday 7th January 1970 was the next date pencilled
in for the fixture but that one didn't happen either when Spurs had to
play an FA Cup replay that evening. The match was finally played on
Wednesday 11th March and after a near three month wait and three different
programmes being printed Spurs lost one-nil! Ironically Spurs' next match
was three days later and was the return fixture against Everton at
Goodison. That went ahead at the first attempt and Spurs lost that one as
well, 2-3. 
The
prize for the most embarrassing postponement must surely go to Manchester
United who on Sunday May 15th 2016 were due to play their last Premier
League fixture of the season with only the FA Cup final to follow. That
was the plan, but while a 75,000 crowd was assembling at Old Trafford for
the fixture with Bournemouth a 'suspect device' was found in one of the
toilets with a controlled explosion being carried out on the device. When
it was discovered part of the ground was evacuated and the match was
called off without a ball being kicked in anger soon after. But what could
have been a serious terrorist threat turned into a farce when the truth
came out. The 'suspect device' was in fact a dummy bomb which had been used in a
security training exercise at Old Trafford and which had unknowingly been
left at the ground by mistake. No-one had discovered the very
realistic-looking pipe-bomb (as pictured) until just before scheduled kick
off - and then nobody was taking any chances. Two days later United beat
Bournemouth 3-1 in the re-arranged fixture.
A
number of matches in England have been abandoned because of rioting fans
but thankfully football has not been affected by civil unrest - until 2011
that is. In August 2011 riots in the streets of Tottenham spread to other
parts of the country. The rioting coincided with the start of the football
season and because of the need for the police to concentrate their
resources on the public disorder rather than policing football matches
several fixtures were postponed in areas of potential conflict. Carling
Cup ties in London (Charlton v Reading, Crystal Palace v Crawley and West
Ham v Aldershot) and Bristol (City v Swindon and Rovers v Watford) were
all postponed as was Tottenham's opening Premier League game at White Hart
Lane against Everton which was scheduled for Saturday 13th August 2011.
The highest profile casualty though was England's prestigious friendly
against Holland which should have gone ahead at Wembley on Wednesday
August 10th. That wasn't the only international casualty. Such is London's
claim to be the home of world football a friendly between Ghana and
Nigeria also had to be called off - it had been due to have been played on
August 9th at Watford's Vicarage Road ground.