England-Netherlands match off due to London riots

LONDON (AP):

England called off today's football friendly against The Netherlands because of concerns about player safety amid a wave of rioting and looting across London, which also threatens the staging of Premier League matches this weekend.

The Wembley Stadium match was cancelled by The Football Association after the Metropolitan Police struggled to contain a third night of lawlessness in the British capital on Monday.

"There were certain concerns about the protection of players on both sides with the travel in coaches,'' said FA chairman David Bernstein, who added he believed this is the first time an England match has been cancelled because of such circumstances.

"We have to put safety and security matters first. I am very sad indeed. This is the only thing we could have done.''

A friendly between Ghana and Nigeria that was due to played yesterday in Watford, which is 20 miles northwest of London, was also called off due to a lack of police.

London's police force has struggled to contain the spiralling violence across the city, but they are preparing to have 16,000 officers on the streets to stop the violence.

"We do not need the additional burden of a crowd of 80,000 people on our streets tomorrow night,'' a police statement said. "Every officer on duty must be deployed to protect life, our communities and properties.''

The Premier League will wait until tomorrow to see whether the three season openers in London can still go ahead on Saturday.

"We are in ongoing discussions with our London-based clubs, the Metropolitan Police and statutory authorities in regard to the staging of the coming weekend's fixtures in the capital,'' the top-flight clubs said in a joint statement with the Football League. "The Metropolitan Police have conveyed to us the dynamic nature of the current situation and with that in mind all parties will review the situation on Thursday and make a further public statement at that time."

The violence first broke out late Saturday near to Premier League club Tottenham, a low-income district in north London where outraged protesters demonstrated against the fatal police shooting of man who was gunned down in disputed circumstances last Thursday.