Well this pandemic situation is just getting weirder and weirder. It really is a war right now, which we thought we had finally won when we had announcements of three different vaccines coming on the market.
But Covid-19 immediately responded by mutating into a more virulent and contagious strain, and yet another mutation has been found in Japan which is half-resistant to vaccines.
So now we are all being told to “Act like you’ve got it”, which means that you should avoid any contact with anyone at all in close quarters, which is a tad difficult on a football pitch.
So far the government has supported the continuation of Elite Sport to keep the masses entertained, but the government is not happy that footballers are not following social distancing guidelines whenever possible, especially when celebrating a goal together.
The government’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam has said that all social contact is “avoidable” and wants to see footballers taking that seriously. He said in the Mirror: “I completely agree with you (that footballers shouldn’t come together for celebrations).
“We are in a very dangerous place now… This is like saying I’m building a big perimeter fence around my property so that the baddies can’t get in.
“But you can’t celebrate that when you’ve put three posts in and two sections of fence – or maybe a bit more in the case of the NHS so far. Because people just go round the fence.
“You’ve got to build the whole fence. And we cannot relax until we’ve got a very substantially vaccinated population.
“And until then, we are in a dangerous place… Every close human contact that is avoidable should be avoided because one in three of us will get the infection and have no symptoms at all.
“So I’m afraid, yes, on the football point, on the sporting point, I do agree with you.”
“I think elite sport is important because these are tough times, and being able to watch the football on the telly is really important because there’s loads of things that you can’t do, and watching it from the comfort of your own home is a perfectly safe activity.
“I know that the Premier League really think hard about this.
“It’s important that it is carried out in a way that is respectful of the rules.
“Now of course they have special arrangements to ensure that the players are safe and they have a testing regime, but I do think that it’s important that everybody respects, not just the letter but the spirit of the rules because it’s actually the spirit of the rules that’s important, which is don’t pass on the disease, act as if you’ve got it and then you won’t pass it on to others.”
As the government says, a third of people who are positive don’t get any visible symptons at all, so it is possible that some players could be carriers on the pitch, but haven’t tested positive straight away.
But, seriously, how do you stop the players celebrating an important goal?
They are joking!! How can i score a 95th winner and not jubilate, even thw prime Minister cannot stop me.. Arrant nansense
Dangerous. Spread the virus
I was reading a similar article on the BBC just now and a Newcastle supporter commented that it doesn’t really apply to them as they don’t score goals.
Brilliant
😂😂
declan…..ahahahahahaa. So laughable.
I’m sorry but I seem to be in the minority here, of course you can score a goal and not have excessive celebrations. You can still celebrate but do we have to have the players jumping on top of each other, laying on the ground on top of each other. I suppose I come from a different generation having watched football in the 60’s and 70’s, you scored a goal got a pat on the back and back to the centre circle and on with the game. A player who now scores a goal he gets pulled around , bumped into , thrown to the ground by his own teammates yet if an opponent breathes on them they go down like a sack of spuds.
Marty I am with you totally. I tell it straight as ever and I say this: IF players do not stop hugging and also spitting, right now, the strong likelihood is that all top football, as with lower levels, will very soon be government halted. Watch the fat fly among fans when that happaens, as imo it will and soon too.
What about having players managers coaching staff ….all vaccined like Sean Dyche talked about no??
WOULD YOU GIVE YOUNG FIT MEN PREFERENCE OVER OLDER FRAIL PEOPLE BADLY IN NEED OF PROTECTION THEN ? As you don’t say, I would NOT do so, believing in ethics and putting older frail people first.
Now that you put it that way no I wouldn’t but he did bring up a couple of valid points Jon like if the government is bent on continuing with the PL the money resources used in testing players managers every few days could be redirected to the NHS and would help with the vaccine campaign and convince some of the covid sceptics but you’re right not at the detriment of the older frail and frontline workers.
Well what are we going to do outlaw tackling as well, and have social distancing in the penalty area at corners and free kicks, I know this is a serious topic so you either play it as we do or not play it at all
its a tough one but we have to be careful, desperate times call for it, its a precautionary measures, it will pass
I’d rather football be cancelled than see this. Footballers are role models to kids and grown up men. Celebrating by touching is wrong during the pandemic.
Arteta should give a 1 match ban for anybody doing this. It’s about LIFE AND DEATH
Arteta shoul
Doesn’t make much sense to me. Football is a contact sport so football minus celebrations still leaves ample space for conditions that lend themselves to virus transmission. Could we stop players celebrating? Definitely (under threat of pulling the plug on the season). Would it make a difference? I can’t see how.