England vs. Netherlands Cancellation Proves Riots May Impact Premiership Matches

When the English Football Association announced the cancellation of Wednesday's England vs. Netherlands friendly match at Wembley Stadium because of the riots tearing through London, the impact was felt well beyond the international football scene. Suddenly, the most lucrative, most prestigious club league in all of football could see its matches impacted. 

The FA decided to cancel the international friendly, which was one of the more heavily anticipated friendly matches of the summer, because of concerns that an already overstretched police force in London would be unable to provide the necessary manpower to protect the players and venue, according to a BBC Sport report. 

But a separate report from the BBC made it abundantly clear that the international friendly and four Carling Cup matches that had already been cancelled might not be the only ones missed.

The Football League and Premiership released a joint statement on the possibility that more matches could be cancelled or postponed in the near future. 

Per that statement:

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A joint statement from the Premier League and Football League read: "We're in talks with our London clubs, the police and authorities.

"A further statement will be made after the situation is reviewed on Thursday."

Tuesday's statement added that "there is no reason to think any matches outside of London will be affected", but it was released before trouble also flared up in the West Midlands and Manchester.

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As of now, three Premiership matches are set to take place in London this weekend, as Tottenham takes on Everton, Fulham hosts Aston Villa and Queens Park Rangers host Bolton, and all three could be affected.

While cancelling the matches outright or shifting them to areas not affected by the violence as of yet may be seen as the safer option, at least one owner is opposed to the idea of postponing or missing games.

Queens Park Rangers owner (and F1 chairman) Bernie Ecclestone told the BBC that cancelling matches would send the wrong message to the rest of the world. 

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"It [postponing matches] would send a terrible message to the rest of the world," he told BBC Sport.

When asked if he feared his team's game might fall victim to the rioting, Ecclestone commented: "I've been told no. I don't think there'll be a threat to QPR. I've spoken to people at the club who seemed quite confident it will go ahead.

"The police seem to have managed to contain the things that have been going on. But there's not much stuff that people can loot at a match so it won't attract the kind of people that have been active in the last few days."

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While that may be true, there are other, more important factors in play than the message England is sending to the world. The primary concern in any decision made should be less about the message it sends and more about avoiding putting fans at risk of injury or property damage. The rioters aren't protesting; they're mostly thugs out to cause mayhem and destruction, which adds a whole new level to the risk. 

The fact of the matter is, the message England would send if matches were postponed would be one about safety, not football. It would show that they view the threat as being serious enough to keep fans safe, and recognize the football matches are secondary to safety when violence is so widespread. 

I'm not saying matches should or should not be cancelled; that's a decision best left to the FA and London police. Obviously, no one wants to cancel the matches, but if the violence continues to run rampant and spread, the FA could be faced with one of the toughest decisions it's ever had to make. 

Many hoped that the international friendly would be the biggest cancellation caused by the rioters, but at this point, it could just be the beginning for English football. 

Hopefully, we'll be able to get back to debating whether Chelsea's lack of midfielders will affect their Premiership title hopes soon.