The Premier League earlier today confirmed the cancellation of Tottenham’s scheduled home game with Everton this Saturday. The club’s ticket office was damaged during days of civil unrest earlier in the week and with control of Tottenham High Road not due to be handed back to the local council from police until tomorrow, there is insufficient time to issue a safety certificate for the match.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said earlier today:
The very latest situation is that Tottenham and Everton has gone. The police have done a fantastic job, but it’s been a crime scene all week and the council have not had enough time to do what they need. The other nine fixtures are looking positive, subject to any more trouble. At 6pm tonight we will have a very clear picture.
Tottenham elaborated further on the club website afterwards:
Following ongoing discussions with the necessary authorities regarding this weekend’s Premier League home match against Everton, it has now been confirmed that this fixture will be postponed due to safety concerns relating to infrastructure of the High Road and access to the stadium caused by last Saturday’s riots.
The scenario leaves Fantasy Managers with some re-thinking to do ahead of Saturday‘s deadline, then. At the moment, Leighton Baines and Phil Jagielka have a combined ownership of 470K Fantasy Premier League (FPL) for the visitors while a look at the home side shows Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Rafael Van der Vaart have been selected by 350K, 198K and 141K Fantasy managers respectively.
Spurs’ opening game of the season is now a visit to Old Trafford and with a difficult home game with Man City in Gameweek 3, short-term investment in their players could drop as a consequence. Everton, on the other hand, open their campaign at Goodison Park against QPR before taking a trip to Blackburn.
The 6pm Premier League update will provide more clues. At present, the nine games look likely to go ahead, meaning there’s a Double Gameweek on the horizon for at least two teams before the season has even kicked-off.
