Ecclestone rails against Premier League riot delay

Perhaps not for the first time the Guardian and Bernie Ecclestone have different points of view. While every liberal's favourite paper is calling for this weekend's entire football programme to be cancelled, the gimlet-eyed boss of Formula One has issued a thundering clarion call, declaring that any cancellation would be a craven capitulation to the rioters.

In its Thursday editorial the Guardian wrings its hand over the violence that has blighted English towns and cities in recent days, and says that if the Premier League season opens as scheduled on Saturday the potential for trouble is enormous. Indeed, the paper is surprised the league programme hasn't already been cancelled. It envisages "large and excited pre- and post-match crowds, sometimes drink-fuelled, streaming through shopping streets in often rundown parts of Britain's cities, some of which have already suffered serious riot damage in recent days".

This, predicts the Guardian, will only lead to further trouble and the paper urges the authorities to do what it believes is  the decent thing: "They need to postpone much of the weekend programme too. Let's try to get our collective breath back this weekend, get our priorities right, and not run the risk of further avoidable mayhem."

But such appeasement gets short shrift from Bernie Ecclestone. He might only be pint-sized but Formula One's Mr Big – and the co-owner of Premier League new boys Queen's Park Rangers – insists the country must stand up to the trouble-makers otherwise anarchy will have triumphed. In an interview with the BBC, Ecclestone resisted calls for start of the Premier League to be cancelled. "The Premier League is watched everywhere I travel. I always see Manchester United on the TV wherever I am," explained Ecclestone, adding: "So it's a very bad message for England, and we're going to have the Olympics soon. You imagine if this happened when the Olympic Games started. It would be terrible."

One of the few footballers to comment on the riots other than a brief message on Twitter is Everton's Tim Cahill. His team are scheduled to travel to Tottenham – where the rioting began on Saturday night – and the Australian believes the match shouldn't go ahead: "We could only play for the right reasons. The main thing is, you have to think about the police who are working day in, day out," said Cahill. "The ambulance, the firemen - they are human beings. We need to reward them, people need to help them... for us if we have to sacrifice an extra week at the end of the season to finish off the games, then so be it."

Ecclestone declared himself "confident" that QPR's match at home to Bolton will go ahead as planned and with London enjoying a second relatively calm night that seems a distinct possibility. Representatives from the Premier League and the Football League will meet with police chiefs on Thursday to assess the situation but a final decision on whether the games can go ahead might not be taken until Friday. ·