The Premier League were wrong to postpone Manchester United vs Crystal Palace this weekend

Buckingham Palace confirmed on Thursday that Queen Elizabeth II had died, aged 96, at Balmoral. A statement from Buckingham Palace read: "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow." That meant the period of national mourning officially began on Friday.

Friday's sporting fixtures were postponed in the wake of the passing of the Queen and the Premier League confirmed before midday that the weekend's matches were also postponed. Manchester United were set to play Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon.

It was always going to be a difficult decision to make in awful circumstances, but the Premier League were wrong to postpone the weekend's fixtures. Rugby, cricket and horse racing are all set to continue this weekend and yet football has been stopped.

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The majority of elite sport will continue while shopping centres, cinemas, pubs, cafes and gyms will remain open. Although the nation is mourning, respects can be paid to the Queen without postponing fixtures, which inadvisably the Premier League has done.

It is hard to deny the decision to postpone has been a major oversight from the Premier League. There are countless reasons why the games shouldn't have been postponed, including that policing numbers were not a factor in the decision on Friday.

The infrastructure was there to support the fixtures and supporters should have been given the opportunity to come together and pay their tributes in a stadium. It was hard not to be moved by West Ham fans singing the national anthem on Thursday night.

Thousands paying their tributes to the Queen inside