Walking around London on Saturday afternoon, the time of the week when football shirts of all colours are visible as people traverse the capital to get to matches, it’s easy to orient yourself if you get lost.
If the crowds of people holding flowers are walking in the opposite direction to you, you’re heading away from the city’s royal monuments. If they’re alongside you, you’re heading in the direction of Buckingham Palace, where people have spent days paying their respects to the country’s longest reigning monarch, or walking beside the country’s longest queue.
This is the first time that Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8th, 2002. This caused all matches to be controversially called off over the following weekendEnglish football featured almost all of its games. There were a handful of matches that weren’t yet played. Because of the record demand for police officers in London, and regional forces pitching their in.
Managers and TV pundits donned black or muted colors to celebrate the start of games across the country. In stadiums, fans paused before kick-off to hold a minute’s silence and sing the new, reworded national anthem, God Save The King. Newcastle United’s manager Eddie Howe even changed from a black suit for the tributes into a black tracksuit for the game.
The clubs decided to skip the pre-match music. However, there was loud applause during 70 minutes of most games to remember the many years Queen Elizabeth II spent on the throne.
These actions were supported by a majority, but not all, especially in Scotland where there are supporters that include the of Celtic Dundee UnitedTheir disapproval was displayed.
The Athletic On match day, I traveled around the capital to speak with fans from several clubs about the historic days that shaped the national sport.
It’s almost a cliche that supporting a football club is a secular religion. It is a combination of blind faith, communal worship, and a deep sense community in a world that feels ever more fragmented.
For the past 10 days, the monarchy has had a similar effect on many — though far from everyone — in Britain and beyond, touching football just like it has touched everything else.
Deepdale’s National Anthem is performed after a minute of silence in tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 2. pic.twitter.com/qa7WEeOH1r
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) September 13, 2022
In the days after her death, the Queen’s body was transported south from Balmoral Castle in Scotland where she died and is now lying in state in Westminster Hall before Monday’s funeral.
The public are able to view the Queen’s coffin until 6.30am BST on Monday and the demand has been quite staggering.
Internationally, the Queue is 10 miles long with signs around London stating that the wait time is 14 hours. It was closed at one point after a 24-hour wait. A secondary queue opened to join The Queue.
Many people are happy to simply lay flowers at the palace, to show their appreciation, or just to see the spectacle.
Nick and Mark, both Leicester CitySeason ticket holders travelled from the Midlands to watch their side play TottenhamIn the late kick-off, we managed to squeeze in a visit at the palace before heading for North London.
“Every time we get a London club we try to make a day of it,” says Mark, who was excited for his first visit to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium (at least before it ended in a 6-2 defeat).
Nine days after the initial shock of the Queen’s death, the mood for some is more one of curiosity and the sense of being at the heart of a historic occasion, rather than intense grief and sadness.
Fans of Leicester City, Nick (L), and Mark (R).
Moving further along towards Green Park, where large crowds arrived in central London, a group Tottenham fans are gathered at the spot were flowers were laid for days.
“We wanted to pay our respects,” said Graham, who lives in Aldershot, an hour to the south west of London and is seeing the tributes in person before heading to the game.
The Houses of Parliament loom over the Royal Park, and these world-famous landmarks will feature prominently in Monday’s funeral coverage.
For those who want to join The Queue, which stretches to the city’s south and east, they must head all the way to Southwark Park.
There is little in the way of football allegiances on show in The Queue, though as one security guard who has spent hours watching the crowds says, “If you were seeing the Queen, would you wear a football shirt?”
It’s a fair point.
According to the guard, he had just missed David Beckham yesterday. EnglandCaptain was praised for waiting in the queue with the crowd rather than using his connections so he could skip the wait. Beckham queued up for 13 hours.
“The most special moment for me was to receive my OBE. I took my grandparents with me, who were huge royalists,” he told Sky News.
“I was so lucky that I was able to have a few moments like that in my life to be around Her Majesty. It’s a sad day, but a day to remember.”
Beckham was reported to have spent 13 hours in The Queue (Photo: Dursun Aydemir/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images).
The Den is located just 15 minutes walk from The Queue’s back. Millwall FC who play in England’s second division.
The club is famous for its patriotic, working-class fanbase. But it has been troubled at times by fan disorder throughout the years. Because English Football League teams play midweek, there is no time for silence today. They then hold their tributes.
The Den is buzzing with excitement as kick-off draws near.
Aysha Smith and Sue Adamson are sisters who sell The Lion Roars, which bills itself as “the alternative Millwall supporter’s magazine”, on sale for £2 outside the ground.
Sue and Aysha (left) with their commemorative fanzine
The fanzine memorial edition shows a photo of the Queen as a teenager attending Millwall games.
The Lions aren’t the only club that sees a connection to the monarch. Millwall’s fierce rivals West HamAfter allegedly speaking of her admiration of Ron Greenwood, legendary Hammers boss, Queen Elizabeth claimed that she was a fan.
After East London was decimated by German bombs in the Second World War, she felt a special connection and opened the West Stand at Boleyn Ground in 2002.
Arsenal fans, too, are proud of being the only team invited to Buckingham Palace back in 2007, after the Queen was unable to attend the unveiling of the club’s new stadium the year before.
“I was nervous and had the chance to meet Queen Elizabeth II.
Thierry Henry was required to present the whole Arsenal team to Queen Elizabeth. He considered doing it in French.😅 pic.twitter.com/Q1DB0m49tL
— CBS Sports Golazo ⚽️ (@CBSSportsGolazo) September 13, 2022
The Millwall fans selling programmes in the sun don’t mind the monarch’s supposed connections to their club’s historic rivals though.
“I’m just devastated, everyone you speak to says it’s like a dream,” says Smith, adding that all the familiar faces she has spoken to this week have wanted to talk about the big news.
“Lots of people can’t make the midweek games so this is the first chance for them to pay their respects.”
According to her sister, they both find inspiration in the Queen, who is a powerful and visible woman, in the male-dominated football world.
“She bossed it.”
The Royal Family is not for everyone. At Liverpool’s Champions League match earlier this week, the minute’s silence was punctured by dissent from a small minority.
There was some back-and-forth among fans who disrupted the silence and shouted at them. Similar incidents were also observed at other games.
The tensions outside of England are greater in areas of the UK where Westminster’s pomp and ceremony are more controversial.
45% of Scottish voters voted for independence in 2014.
Rangers are known for their firmly unionist — pro-UK — fanbase associated with Protestantism, while their fierce rivals Celtic are associated with Republicanism, linked to the Catholicism and Irish nationalism of their historic fanbase.
Celtic’s game at St Mirren featured a minute’s silence rather than applause, but the away fans still found a way to make their displeasure with the public mourning known.
Banner in the Celtic end against St Mirren during minute’s applause for the Queen. pic.twitter.com/ST6SUrfiDR
— Andrew Maclean (@AndrewMaclean_) September 18, 2022
UEFA has opened disciplinary proceedings against Celtic over a separate, profane anti-monarchy banner displayed at their Champions League game this week, but Rangers will face no action for ignoring official guidance and playing the UK’s national anthem.
Rangers faced Dundee United on Saturday, another club with Irish roots. The silence was broken by dissidents from away fans.
A large section of the Dundee United support boo the minute’s silence at Ibrox and sing “Lizzie’s in a box”.
Rule Britannia now rings out around the stadium as a retaliation.
Didn’t expect any disturbance to be as loud as that.
— Jordan Campbell (@JordanC1107) September 17, 2022
For the most part, though, minute’s silences around the UK were observed respectfully and anthems were sung loudly.
National flags are not an especially common sight in English football — the division of the United Kingdom into four separate Home Nations in the football context complicates things, with English football fans more readily identifying with the red cross of Saint George.
Union Jacks were also seen on grounds throughout England this weekend.
Newcastle United’s home games are typically given life by the Wor Flags collective, who make elaborate displays to support their team.
They did not do this out of respect, but they flew some red-white and blue flags outside the stadium.
Football will move on after the funeral as the UK’s new era under King Charles III begins.
Prince William is the president of the Football Association and is now the heir to the throne. The monarchy will likely loom larger than the domestic game.
But this weekend was about remembering the Queen and once the last of the minute’s silences is over, and the last of The Queue barriers are swept away, nobody in this country will forget where they were during this historic week.
It was a time when the force of collective human experience — a weekly event for football fans — was felt by so many beyond that.
(Top photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images
