With huge sacrifices being made by the public at large, pictures of players ignoring social distancing rules really can’t be tolerated.
And we are pleased West Ham have made a strong statement regarding Manu Lanzini partying with other players and giving him a strong reminder of his responsibilities.
Professional footballers have to follow social distancing rules like everyone else despite being tested weekly.
While exceptions are made during training and playing competitive sports for elite sportsmen they are required to follow normal rules outside of those settings.
When images appeared in the public domain of Lanzini breaking those rules with Spurs playerss with West Ham immediately issued a statement saying “The Club has set the highest possible standards with its protocols and measures relating to COVID-19 so we are disappointed to learn of Manuel Lanzini’s actions. The matter has been dealt with internally and Manuel has been strongly reminded of his responsibilities.”
Spurs have also condemned the breach saying “We are extremely disappointed and strongly condemn this image showing some of our players with family and friends together at Christmas…the matter will be dealt with internally.”
Lanzini and the players are not alone because earlier this week a photo of Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal with the Czech ambassador to the UK appeared online which appears to break tough Tier 4 rules.
Declan Rice has published photos on social next to boxer AJ with his arms around Floyd Mayweather and also with his two brothers at Christmas in a family home setting in Tier 4.
Not good enough lads – get your acts together!
That ‘other man’ is Floyd Mayweather lol
Unfortunately this also stokes the fires for people not interested in football and their conception that a lot of these players for all their wealth and talent are not the brightest when it comes to IQ .Not something we need when folks feel trapped and restricted seeing the well paid few sticking 2 fingers up at the law.
The Chech ambassador should not have invited them to the embassy just so he could have his fan moment. Abuse of authority. AJ doesn’t care about COVID obviously otherwise he wouldn’t have been out in the middle of protest crowds earlier in the year would he? As for Declan, if he decides to support AJ against Tyson Fury then I’m afraid he must be sold to Chelsea.
They are all breaching the rules by playing, 22 different households on the pitch. So why not go partying. We are expected to stick to the rules, but overpaid footballers can do whatever they like.
It’s a clear that Manu and the Spurs players broke the rules and Manu has rightly apologised. With the other pictures it is less clear. Both Vlad and Tomas were pictured with the Czech ambassador at the time of the Rememberance Day commemorations. Are certain those pictures were not taken then? The picture of Declan with Joshua and Mayweather was taken at the Joshua fight in November when boxing events could still go on, although Declan should have been wearing a mask. The picture of Declan with his two brothers is likely all above board. As I understand it (I might be wrong) Declan still lives at home and presumably do his brothers. Therefore they would be one household whi can be together. Even if Declan does live alone, he could legitimately bubble’ with his family.
So maybe we should get all the facts before we condemn.
Bang on right Keith….