Fixtures move to avoid clash with Duke funeral
Saturday’s Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Sheffield United will be rearranged to avoid a clash with the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral.
The English Football League and Premiership Rugby have already announced that Saturday’s fixtures will be rescheduled, and two major horse-racing meetings – at Ayr and Newbury – have been moved back a day to Sunday.
Talks were being held yesterday between Wolves, Sheffield United, the Premier League, Sky Sports and the Government over a change to the 3pm kick-off, which coincides with a national minute’s silence at the start of the Duke’s funeral.
Both teams have a clear week before and after the match but, with the game due to be screened live on Sky Sports, they are trying to identify a window within the busy wider televised schedule of live sport.
The British Horseracing Authority has confirmed there will be no racing on Saturday between 2.45pm and 4.15pm, which means the two principal meetings being put back a day.
There will be no ITV coverage of any racing on Saturday, but the main channel will cover both big meetings on Sunday between 12.55pm and 4pm.
It also announced that the meetings at Bangor and Thirsk were likely to start early so that they finished before 2.45pm, while the evening meetings at Brighton and Nottingham would go ahead pretty much as planned, with minor time adjustments.
The first day of the meetings at Newbury and Ayr will go ahead as scheduled on Friday.
In Scotland, Rangers are due to host Celtic at 4pm, one of six fourthround ties scheduled in the Scottish Cup.
A Scottish Football Association statement read: “In light of confirmation that the funeral of HRH Prince Philip will take place next Saturday at 3pm, we have entered dialogue with the relevant stakeholders with regard to Scottish Cup fourth-round fixtures scheduled on that day. We will update participating clubs, supporters and partners in due course.”
The Government’s published advice says that decisions over the rescheduling of sporting fixtures should be taken “at the discretion of organisers”, but that they may consider black armbands and silence before matches are played. Tributes have been paid across the sporting weekend to the Duke, who died on Friday aged 99.