Pressure will grow on unvaccinated footballers at the Premier League’s emergency meeting on Monday after a raft of fixtures again fell by the wayside due to Covid infections.
Clubs are understood to be pushing for players who refuse vaccination to be segregated in training and travel because of an increased risk of spreading infection.
As the Premier League battle to save their traditional Boxing Day programme, a number of clubs will call for new, stricter protocols while fans want more coherent pre-match rules to avoid late cancellations.
Aston Villa v Burnley called off just over two hours before kick-off on Saturday.
The Premier League will continue to resist calls for a firebreak to all fixtures and will attempt to play games when they can but should a ‘de facto’ pause be caused by postponements, it could be the first time since World War Two that there is no elite-level football on Boxing Day.
With the league desperate to boost their poor vaccination record, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has said it would now be difficult to sign an unvaccinated player, reflecting a growing feeling that they are undesirable as potential transfer targets.
‘If a player is not vaccinated at all, he is a constant threat for all of us,’ said Klopp. ‘He doesn’t want to be a threat, it’s not that he thinks “I don’t care about the others” but he is.
‘From an organisational point of view, it gets really messy. We’d have to find different scenarios. He has to change in a different dressing room, he has to eat in a different dining room, he has to sit in a different bus, he has to drive in a different car. If you really want to follow the protocols, it is incredibly difficult to do.’
Staff at another club have even suggested not allowing unvaccinated players into the stadium red zone, which is the dressing room area and in-field for players and staff.
That would bar them from playing and, as such, wouldn’t receive support from most clubs but reflects a growing frustration in football that players are jeopardising games by their refusal to be vaccinated.
Klopp’s example could become a reality as clubs fight to slow the advance of the Omicron variant.
The Premier League have by far the worst vaccination rate of the major leagues in Europe, with 68 per cent fully vaccinated by October, though the league are set to update those figures this week — which will show an improvement.
However, the league will still be way behind Serie A, which according to La Repubblica newspaper is 98 per cent vaccinated.
The Bundesliga have said 92 per cent of its players are vaccinated and The Mail on Sunday understands that 92 per cent are also fully vaccinated in La Liga.
Double-vaccinated players in the UK can now receive a booster which offers higher protection against Omicron.
Fans were left outraged yesterday after Aston Villa’s game with Burnley was called off just over two hours before kick-off, a decision branded ‘unacceptable’ and ‘ridiculous’ and which upset Burnley, who have now had their last two fixtures called off only a couple of hours before kick-off because of Covid outbreaks within their opponents’ squads.
Fans’ groups accept that health remains the priority but are angered that clubs are allowed to report cases so late.
Villa reported fresh positive results for Covid yesterday at 10am and the Premier League board had to then consider the medical evidence to see if it fitted their criterion of not having 14 players with relevant experience fit to play.
The board convened at noon and took the decision at 12.40pm after accepting that Villa met their criterion. All of Saturday’s Premier League programme was wiped out apart from Leeds’ home match against Arsenal, though five Championships games took place and three Premier League games are due to be played today.
Proposals which will be discussed on Monday to prevent further late postponements include making clubs do lateral flow tests the evening before games and ensuring any PCR tests are completed by the night before, so any issues are at least flagged before the day of the game.
Players may have to return to bubbles and stay in hotels 24 hours before games to prevent infections, and stricter travel arrangements with increased social distancing may be necessary. Malcolm Clarke, Football Supporters’ Association chair, said: ‘There have to be better protocols to avoid postponing games a couple of hours before kick-off. That’s ridiculous.
‘It’s not just supporters that are affected. Staff will have turned up, food would have been prepared. It’s just not on. To have that happen twice in a week, there has to be a better way.
‘It’s seriously inconvenient for supporters to be told a couple of hours in advance.
‘Burnley supporters would have travelled to Birmingham and most would have likely already been there. The football industry has to think about how to avoid this.
‘It’s simply not fair. To have it called off with two hours’ notice is really unacceptable.’