Premier League clubs will be required to organise double COVID-19 vaccination of their players and staff by October 1st, to avoid an enforced break in the event of a winter spike. The UK has moved out of lockdown with the majority of restrictions lifted on July 19, meaning mass gatherings are permitted again and face masks are no longer mandatory.
This has paved the way for crowds to return to football games, with West Ham allowed to play in front of 60,000 fans in the Betway cup game against Atalanta on 7th August .
By the start of the Premier League campaign, stadiums will be back to full capacity, with clubs using pre-season to test safety protocols ahead of the big kickoff.
However, with concerns over a possible spike in COVID-19 cases in the winter, and possibly even another lockdown, the government have put together plans to avoid any disruption to the football calendar.
- Players, staff and fans required double-vaccination by October 1st
- Only those with medical exemption will be permitted to attend games without
- Proof of negative test will no longer be sufficient to gain entry
According to The Athletic, this requires all players and staff to be double-vaccinated by October 1, with fans wishing to attend games also needing proof of vaccination.
The Premier League is said to be “supportive of the plan,” but it is described as a “huge logistical headache” given there needs to be a minimum of eight weeks between the first and second doses.
Discrimination against healthy people don’t need a vaccine
If this report comes to fruition, it is wholly unpalatable.
Vulnerable, elderly people and those amongst us with underlying health issues regardless of age, who require and deserve to be protected should absolutely be encouraged to voluntarily come forward and receive the protection for their own well-being and peace of mind.
On the contrary, youthful healthy elite athletes without underlying medical issues should be able to decide for themselves how concerned they are about contracting the virus. Of the many people within football that have been diagnosed with COVID-19 how many have recovered and continue on with their professional work? I’d be surprised if it wasn’t 100%.
We need to allow people in general to make their own decisions, and stop the nonsense of discrimination against people (players), who may choose not to be vaccinated, for whatever reason.
It has been widely accepted that even by doing so (fully vaccinated), can still renders some of us susceptible (contracting virus), this contradiction is what baffles me most, because if by me being vaccinated, or not , if the outcome is pretty similar for those of a healthy persuasion, which is mild cold-like symptoms, isolation rest and recovery.
Recently we are hearing about more and more people being pinged via NHS that we isolate, having been in contact with people who tested positive, however, exceptions are being made for certain individuals or groups in settings, provided they are testing negatively daily, they’re not required to isolate. Shouldn’t that be the defining criteria, a negative test result?
And yet, football players have been doing this same thing since project restart, ie,Chilwell and Mount on international duty, so again why force them to be vaccinated?
Even Ericksen has recovered…
If you’ve been double-jabbed then why are you worried about others who haven’t? They should be equally worried about you but haven’t been susceptible to the BS… PL just protecting the money and thus as part of the ‘establishment’ deigned by the amount of money they are involved with, are supporting this ever more hypocritical and snide state of affairs being implemented by an agenda following bunch of arse-wipe politicians…x
I agree with ALL of the comments thus far…..
WRONG on so many levels. A vaccine that ISN’T a “Vaccine” and has ONLY been approved for Emergency use Only, has people being Forced and Coerced to take something that they don’t want or need. In a country with one of the highest takeups of this jab, it cannot be a coincidence that we also have the highest rate of covid in the world…
The Premier League doesn’t care about the health of players, just the financial side of their business!
Just get on with it. Not worth fighting against with any kind of principle.
COYI
That’s exactly the problem with people and society today……Very little “Principle” displayed by many and I thought that was one of the Core values of democracy?
Making quips is easy, but making sense is much harder for some.