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Police forces across the country are waiting to see if there are any further outbreaks of public disorder before deciding whether the Premier League season can start as planned this weekend.
The league can wait until Friday to make the decision, although it and the Football League will offer their latest public assessment on Thursday about games being staged.
After three nights of rioting in London there was less trouble on Tuesday evening but the unrest spread to other parts of the country. In West Bromwich, a site for violence and looting on Tuesday, Manchester United are due to begin the defence of their title against Albion on Sunday.
In Manchester, where there was severe disorder on Tuesday evening, Manchester City are scheduled to face Swansea City on Monday, while London has three Premier League matches scheduled for Saturday. Tottenham play Everton, QPR host Bolton and Fulham welcome Aston Villa. While all of these matches are category_A – the lowest grade for a Premier League fixture – there has been trouble in or around all of these club's areas.
The disorder began in Tottenham on Saturday night after being sparked by the shooting of a 29-year-old man by the police last Thursday.
A highly placed London police source said: "All three of those games [in London] are low risk, they will not need massive police numbers, however all police leave has been cancelled and they are gearing everything around problems recurring.
"I would imagine that, if there is going to be a flare-up of problems in London, it would be at the weekend – Friday and Saturday night. That's when football occurs and I don't think we're going to commit resources to football in the current situation."
Fulham are hopeful that their match will go ahead and Bernie Ecclestone, the majority owner of QPR, is also optimistic. "I've spoken to people at the club who seemed quite confident it will go ahead," he said. "The police seem to have managed to contain the things that have been going on. 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.
"The Premier League is watched everywhere I travel. So it's a very bad message for England [if games are postponed] and we're going to have the Olympics soon. You imagine if this happened when the Games started. It would be terrible."
Police forces across the country are waiting to see if there are any further outbreaks of public disorder before deciding whether the Premier League season can start as planned this weekend.
The league can wait until Friday to make the decision, although it and the Football League will offer their latest public assessment on Thursday about games being staged.
After three nights of rioting in London there was less trouble on Tuesday evening but the unrest spread to other parts of the country. In West Bromwich, a site for violence and looting on Tuesday, Manchester United are due to begin the defence of their title against Albion on Sunday.
In Manchester, where there was severe disorder on Tuesday evening, Manchester City are scheduled to face Swansea City on Monday, while London has three Premier League matches scheduled for Saturday. Tottenham play Everton, QPR host Bolton and Fulham welcome Aston Villa. While all of these matches are category_A – the lowest grade for a Premier League fixture – there has been trouble in or around all of these club's areas.
The disorder began in Tottenham on Saturday night after being sparked by the shooting of a 29-year-old man by the police last Thursday.
A highly placed London police source said: "All three of those games [in London] are low risk, they will not need massive police numbers, however all police leave has been cancelled and they are gearing everything around problems recurring.
"I would imagine that, if there is going to be a flare-up of problems in London, it would be at the weekend – Friday and Saturday night. That's when football occurs and I don't think we're going to commit resources to football in the current situation."
Fulham are hopeful that their match will go ahead and Bernie Ecclestone, the majority owner of QPR, is also optimistic. "I've spoken to people at the club who seemed quite confident it will go ahead," he said. "The police seem to have managed to contain the things that have been going on. 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.
"The Premier League is watched everywhere I travel. So it's a very bad message for England [if games are postponed] and we're going to have the Olympics soon. You imagine if this happened when the Games started. It would be terrible."
