LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 20: The Chelsea team celebrate from an open top bus during the Chelsea victory parade following their UEFA Champions League and FA Cup victories on May 20, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images)

When a soccer team wins a big trophy, it’s usually customary to ride around their city in a double-decker bus splashed with the colors and logos of the winning team while the players are on the top level greeting their fans.

This year, Premier League champion Chelsea decided to cancel their trophy celebration around London (originally scheduled for May 28) due to the terrorist attack at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester on Monday.

The decision to cancel this is two-fold. With England’s terror threat elevated, it’s not the best idea to have a parade consisting of hundreds of thousands of people in crowded public streets. It would be near impossible to come up with a new security plan within six days to ensure a large event like this would be safe. Also, while there is an argument to continue things without interruption to show terrorists that they cannot affect our day-to-day lives, it could also be viewed as insensitive to have a trophy celebration given what has happened this week so Chelsea wanted to show respect to those affected by the tragedy.

The Premier League season ended this past weekend but those English teams who are still playing will be wearing black armbands this week. Arsenal and Chelsea face off in the FA Cup Final on Saturday at Wembley Stadium. While they will be playing with a heavy heart, Manchester United is playing Ajax in the Europa League Final on Wednesday. Both teams will be wearing black armbands and will have a minute silence before kickoff.

[Pro Soccer Talk]

 

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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