With the date of the Queen's funeral now set for Monday September 19th, the football authorities will now have to decide when football fixtures will resume and if the resources are there for some clubs during the next week leading to the funeral itself.
On the face of it there is no reason why football fixtures should not be played in the week leading up to the Queen's funeral at Westminster Abbey, other sporting events have taken place over the weekend and there has been some who have questioned the decision by the football authorities to cancel the games this weekend.
I can see the viewpoint of some as to why these fixtures were cancelled and certainly I like many were left at a loose end this weekend when our game with Brentford was called off.
I can also appreciate that many business's will have suffered financial loss due to the postponements and this coming at a time when many are closing down due to the aftermath of not just Covid, but also the rising costs in the current crisis, from this perspective it will hit some business's very hard.
But overall I don't have an issue with the postponements, whether some like it or not, the Queen was the sovereign of our country for 71 years, so it was perhaps the right thing to do to honour a sad occasion which will be perhaps for many people a once in a lifetime occurrence.
Now though comes the business of re starting the fixtures, the Football League has a full programme as well as the European cup competitions.
So I see no reason as to why the Premier League should not resume next weekend.
But there are some issues that will affect some clubs, mainly in London that could see some postponements.
The capital is on high levels of security alert ahead of the funeral and the Metropolitan Police will be stretched to it's limits with the build up and the day of the funeral and may find it hard to police football matches ahead of the big day itself.
There is also the terrorist threat, and the need for increased security over the next week and if that is not enough there could be stewarding issues for London club's with many using external security firms for stewarding, those firms will also be potentially involved in stewarding of crowds and shops etc both before and on the day of the funeral, so London club's might be able to play a game but not be able to provide adequate police and stewarding.
But I would suggest those issues won't be in play around the rest of the country. so I see no reason why Saints trip to Aston Villa will not take place.
There is one last concern for the football authorities and that is the potential for abuse from the crowd during two minute silences etc, that was the case at the Hearts V Istanbul Basaksehir game on Thursday, the actual abuse was minimal, but it seemed a lot worse due to the majority of the crowd turning on those who had been disrespectful.
I am not so sure that their fears are grounded, but the fact still remains it is a potential problem that has to be assessed.