Queen Elizabeth II has died, aged 96.’ In other news, West Ham v Newcastle United this weekend is off.

Let me start by addressing the first part.’ I had an awful lot of time for the Queen.’ My parents are both immigrants, from places which suffered under the British imperial yoke (Egypt and Ireland), but in my household there is only sadness at her passing.

In an increasingly atomised, fractured, and individualist country, she was an emblem of togetherness and belonging.’ She fostered unity more so than division, and she was someone on whom agreement was reached more often than disagreement.’ So many sources of belonging have been so diminished over her reign ‘ churches and trade unions being just two examples ‘ while our politics has become meaner, more judgmental, and almost entirely self-referential.

I therefore came to regard the Queen ‘ perhaps a little grudgingly at first, as I am not well-disposed towards the infantility of pomp, circumstance and flag-waving, and am even less well-disposed towards the inequality from which monarchy is absolutely inseparable ‘ as someone not only to be respected, but to be genuinely valued and cherished.’ We had, and perhaps now have, precious little else to bind us.There were, and are, other quintessentially English (or British) things which have more meaning and resonance to me personally, than the passing of a monarch ‘the flags which people bring to the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury,the evocative poetry of Philip Larkin, the letters page in Viz, or drinking lukewarm cans of pre-mixed cocktails on cross-country trains ‘ but the Queen during her life was, and in her death is, without parallel in terms of her ability to unite British people around something recognisably British.

May she rest in peace, may her life be celebrated, and may her memory be respected.

There is a world of difference between that kind of respect (which includes adherence to official protocols which have been in place for decades) and performative gestures such as cancelling the weekend’s football programme.’ This was not forced upon the Premier League by the Government or any official mourning protocol, nor has it been forced by policing constraints or security concerns.No.

This is a voluntary, short-sighted, entirely stupid decision, which makes even less practical sense given that there will (quite rightly) be postponements due to the state funeral, and there is already unprecedented fixture congestion due to the World Cup.

I must declare an interest ‘ I had tickets for West Ham, and I had very much been looking forward to it.’ I will now most likely spend my Sunday afternoon at a garden centre.’ If Richard Masters is able to explain how choosing a hydrangea is appropriate at the present time, but watching a defensive masterclass from Sven Botman is not, then I would like to hear it.’ This is not a mark of respect for the Queen.’ We should be wary of trying to guess what the deceased would have thought, but I cannot imagine that the Queen would have been too concerned by the weekend’s matches going ahead.

She was, reportedly, an Arsenal sympathiser ‘if that is correct, one might expect that she’d have been keen to see Mikel Arteta’s side get back to winning ways against Everton(a fixture which involves the only two clubs to have spent the entirety of her reign in the English top division ‘ file that one away in the ‘what she would have wanted’ drawer).

So here we are.’ The Queen probably wouldn’t have cared one way or the other.’ The Government was OK with the football going ahead.’ The police and security services had no problems with it either (and in any event, they work for us, not the other way round) and ‘ if it was PR that Masters was concerned about ‘ then the continuation of the Premier League programme had (within twelve hours of her death being reported) become a respectable, mainstream journalistic view.’ Perhaps, in time, we will be told more about why the Premier League came to this decision.

More likely, knowing the relationship between the Premier League and transparency (which, though I am not one of those who sees a cartel staring back at me from just around the U-bend every time I pop for a comfort break, could charitably be described as economical and uneasy), we will hear nothing at all.’ We are left to conclude, unsatisfactorily, that this is little more than performative nonsense from a chief executive out of his depth and ill-equipped to meet this moment.’ Scudamore would have done the opposite.

There are broader points to be made about this period of enforced public mourning, and the state-authorised closures and cancellations of events.’ This article is not the place to go into those in detail ‘ not least because Masters’ decision was voluntary, not imposed.’ And because, well, this is a football fanzine.’ But it is worth pointing out that there is a difference between actions which are genuinely respectful of the memory of a truly remarkable woman (of whose like we may never see again), and the kind of self-denying ordinances which do little to commemorate her, and are actually just about maintaining the mystique of monarchy as an institution ‘ mystique without which its absurdity would be on public display.

All work and no play might just make republicans, if not of all of us, then at least a few (the total capacity of the ten Premier League stadiums which were due to host matches this weekend is 428,604 ‘ most of those seats would have been filled).Referenda can be close-run things.

Rest in Peace, Queen Elizabeth II (1926 ‘ 2022).

Up the Mags.

YOUSEF HATEM – @yousef_1892