Sheffield football teams criticised over friendly held after death of the Queen

Two amateur football teams are facing an investigation after defying the decision to suspend matches following the death of the Queen.

Along with all professional fixtures, amateur and junior football fixtures organised by the Football Association was postponed at the weekend out of respect after the passing of Her Majesty on Thursday, 8 September.

Among them was a Sheffield and District Fair Play League match scheduled between Sheffield International FC and Byron House.

Sheffield International tweeted to say the league fixture would not be going ahead.

But they added: "We will instead be aiming to play a friendly tomorrow morning, against Byron House, kick-off 10.30am."

After that tweet went viral, with more than 40,000 "likes" and more than 3,000 retweets, they subsequently tweeted that there would be no game after someone "snitched", but said a "training session" would be held instead.

However, on the day of the game, they posted pictures of players in match kit and appeared to confirm that a match had taken place.

In a statement the Sheffield and District Fair Play League said it did not condone such "disrespectful and despicable behaviour".

"There will be an investigation into this matter, in conjunction with the Sheffield and Hallamshire County FA, and these two teams will be dealt with in the strongest possible terms," it added.

League chairman Danny Taylor said: "Queen Elizabeth II ruled, served and led with integrity and humility for more than seven decades. It is a terrible shame that these two teams could not emulate this even for a single Saturday, despite our clear instructions."

He thanked the 37 other clubs "that followed the instructions and showed their respects with honour".

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