Man City lead where the Premier League did not over fixture postponements

Manchester City could not do anything about their Premier League or Women's Super League games being postponed this weekend, but their response to the decision on Friday was excellent.

Within three hours of the call, the club had decided that they would pay all casual workers that were meant to be on duty for either the men's or the women's matches in full for the shift they were meant to work, while all perishable food that was set to go to waste would be donated to local organisations. Quickly, anyone who had been worrying about a loss of income at short notice was reassured that they will not lose out because of a late (and disputed) decision that was out of their hands.

Contrast that to the Premier League itself, which took a whopping 20 hours after the death of the Queen — leaving clubs to make their own decisions about whether to hold scheduled press conferences and media activities or not — before declaring just short of Friday lunchtime that the whole matchday would be postponed. No recognition was made of any supporters or workers who would lose out financially from this, never mind any effort made to compensate them for this.

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City, of course, as one of the richest clubs in the league, can afford to pay for people not to work. It could be argued that they could go further, helping out anyone who was impaired as a result of the 11th-hour postponement.

But there was almost universal approval of City's actions because they were what all supporters would want their club to do if they are able to. Fans that had previously been united in being put out by the change of plan could appreciate a club doing something they didn't need to