Divides emerged within football and rugby union with different outcomes for both sports
While all sports were thrown into turmoil over how best to pay their respects following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, civil war broke out in rugby union on Friday in the wake of its response to the passing of Britain’s longest-serving monarch.
Talks that eventually saw football announce a complete shutdown this weekend may have been compared to a “Hokey Cokey competition” by one frustrated figure but that was nothing compared to chaos and fury that reigned at Premiership clubs.
Even the often-at-loggerheads Football Association, Premier League and English Football League eventually managed to put on a united front over their own controversial decision following discussions on Friday morning at which the Government made clear sports were at liberty to play on or postpone fixtures as they saw fit.
But what Telegraph Sport has been told was flip-flopping over whether the opening matches of the Premiership season should be similarly postponed sparked angry recriminations when Friday night’s games were suddenly rescheduled having previously appeared to have been given the go ahead.
The ruling, announced following an extended Premiership Rugby board meeting, affected Bristol Bears’ meeting with Bath and Sale Sharks’ match against Northampton and was arrived at despite the Rugby Football Union allowing Cornish Pirates v Richmond and Coventry v Bedford Blues to go ahead in the Championship the same evening.
Telegraph Sport has been told the postponements is likely to cost Bristol between £200,000 and £400,000 despite their match being moved to 5.30pm Saturday.
Friday night matches were said to have been moved because the Premiership board could not agree to maintaining the original schedule and that, while all clubs were in favour of starting the season this weekend, there was not a unified position over playing Friday’s two scheduled matches.
At least two members of the board, thought not to have links to clubs that were due to play on Friday night, objected to those games going ahead.
The decision was also not communicated until 12.45pm, by which time Northampton’s players were already on their way to Salford amid every indication Friday’s fixtures would go ahead and that players, coaches and supporters would show their respects to the late Queen by singing the national anthem and holding a moment’s silence.
Indeed, Telegraph Sport has been told referees and match officials were informed definitively around mid-morning that the games were on, some also having made their way to the grounds.
But something was said to have changed after the Premier League and English Football League (EFL) announced the postponement of their own weekend fixture programme at around 11.30am, with rugby insiders branding what subsequently unfolded as “bedlam”, “scrambling” and “absolute madness”. “I’ve worked in sport a fair while,” said one source. “This is remarkable.”
Sports began agonising over their response to the Queen’s death as early as lunchtime on Thursday after her family rushed to be by her bedside amid serious concerns for her health.
The EFL board was in a scheduled meeting as the news broke and discussions quickly began about it, eventually culminating in an agreement in principle to postpone games if necessary.
Hours later, at around the same time as the late Queen’s still-to-be announced passing, the Government was convening a working group of sports to go through the protocols in the event of her death.
The meeting touched upon what might happen if she did not survive the weekend but no decisions were taken before Buckingham Palace’s historic announcement at 6.30pm.
Minutes after that, all racing in Britain was suspended until at least Saturday, followed over the course of the evening by the cancellation of the second day of England’s final Test against South Africa, Friday’s play at the PGA Championship at Wentworth and the same day’s EFL fixtures.
Other decisions were put on hold pending another sport-wide meeting on Friday morning at which it was hoped to reach a unified position on this weekend’s action.
But a clear divide emerged between football and others, driven by what Telegraph Sport has been told were its close links in an official capacity to Queen Elizabeth and her grieving grandson, the Duke of Cambridge.
The late Queen had uniquely long been patron of the Football Association, the president of which is also Prince William, while consideration was also given to the fact that football is “the national game”.
At that stage, only racing, the ‘Sport of Kings’ and Queen Elizabeth’s favourite, had called off its Saturday meetings and even it had decided to restart on Sunday.
In the end, football went furthest of all, cancelling games from From all the way through to Monday, before watching on as first rugby and then cricket confirmed they, too, would resume over the course of the weekend.
The Football Supporters’ Association summed up opposition to the Premier League, EFL and FA’s move by lamenting “an opportunity missed for football to pay its own special tributes”.
How sport ended up producing such a seemingly chaotic response to a moment for which it long had time to prepare raised major questions on Friday.
Arguably, it has had as long as 70 years since the late Queen’s father, George VI, died in 1952, although Buckingham Palace and successive Governments had deemed it impossible to draw up a definitive playbook for sport to follow in the event of the passing of a monarch given the sheer number of different scenarios that could unfold.
But it was well known by the time the late Queen reached retirement age that, when it came to death by natural causes, the general principle was that it would be for each national governing body (NGB) to decide whether to postpone fixtures and events or not.
The one day everyone instinctively agreed sport should not take place was on the date of the funeral, the build-up to which could yet see more football fixtures postponed as millions of mourners flock to London, triggering the redeployment of police officers whose presence is usually required at many games.
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