By Andrew Warshaw
August 9 – England’s decision to postpone tomorrow night’s prestige friendly with the Netherlands because of the widespread rioting in London reverberated around the world as Football Association chairman David Bernstein (pictured) admitted he was not able to guarantee the safety of players.
More than 70,000 tickets had been sold for the game at Wembley with thousands arriving from the Netherlands to support last year’s beaten World Cup finalists.
Three days of rioting across the capital gave the footballing authorities virtually no choice but to call off the game following consultation with the police and Government.
Uppermost among concerns was that there might be insufficient police resources to protect players, officials and supporters should there be more looting across the capital.
“Due to the sporadic and widespread nature of the unrest, there are significant concerns in relation to the available emergency service resources to safely police this fixture,” said Bernstein.
“The authorities have advised us that, under the terms of our Safety Certificate, we are unable to host the fixture or guarantee the safety of visiting supporters or the teams.
“It was the question of resources, both of the police and the other emergency services.
“It was the question of transportation, certain concerns about protection of players from both sides, their travelling in coaches and so on, so there were a lot of issues. For these reasons, the game cannot go ahead.”
Ironically the August friendly date was the very one that had sparked such animosity between members of the European Club Association and FIFA in recent weeks.
The clubs have demanded a greater say in how the calendar is structured and club managers of players who would have been involved at Wembley will be quietly relieved that none of them will return injured from international duty.
But Bernstein was hugely disappointed at having to call off the high-profile fixture.
“I am incredibly sad,” he said.
“There are thousands of fans who would have been at the match, millions would have watched it on TV.
“It is terribly sad that a major sports event of this sort has to be cancelled in this way.
“But we have to put safety and security matters first.
“There is no question about that.
“I think we have done the only thing we could do.
“There was no choice in this situation.”
The England players issued a statement supporting the unprecedented decision but the Dutch federation are bound to seek compensation as will the television companies that had signed contracts to screen the match.
Talks will now take place to get the game rearranged though when that might be remains in doubt with the resumption of European qualifiers to come next.
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