Covid-hit Premier League clubs should consider fining players who refuse the vaccine

No Covid suspension for Premier League – reports

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As the Boxing Day fixture list melts away before our eyes, Steven Gerrard’s declaration that a player’s vaccination status will from now on be a factor for Aston Villa in deciding whether or not to sign him becomes more and more understandable.

Times are strange when a jab is included alongside a player’s first touch or his speed off the mark in the transfer assessment process and players’ unions and libertarians are unlikely to welcome the development but with the current level of disruption you can see where Gerrard is coming from.

Last month Bayern Munich refused to pay five unvaccinated players for every game or training day they missed due to quarantining after coming into contact with a Covid-positive case. 

Clubs in England should do the same across the board because their own players’ selfishness is contributing to this disarray.

The number of players in the Premier League that have not been double vaccinated stands at 23 per cent. It is a shocking 41 per cent in the EFL.

If there is the same hesitancy with the booster jab, the number of postponements is only going to spiral in the coming weeks. That threatens to cause fixture chaos down the line.

When 25 per cent of players in the EFL declare they have no intention of being vaccinated clearly a method needs to be found to concentrate minds.

It is not as if footballers have been short on sound advice. They were even treated to a personal audience with Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer and Boston United fan. But for a stubborn rump the message, it seems, will not go in.

Vaccination is not a panacea. The virus, particularly the omicron version of it, can still be contracted and spread by the jabbed. But it is society’s most effective defence. 

You might have thought footballers would have understood the concept of defence. Clearly not all of them do but you can be sure they would all understand pay cuts.

There will be no prize money for unvaccinated tennis players at next month’s Australian Open because the state of Victoria has banned them from coming.

Canada will also not be allowing unvaccinated NBA players to travel to the country from next month to play against Toronto Raptors. 

The rule won’t affect many players. In the NBA, 97 per cent of players have been double vaccinated and more than 60 per cent have accepted the booster jab so far.

Are basketball players smarter than footballers? Just the ones in England it appears. In Germany 94 per cent of Bundesliga players and staff are vaccinated while in Italy’s Serie A’s the figure is 98 per cent.

Jurgen Klopp has compared vaccine evasion to drink driving. When his mum died in January Covid travel restrictions prevented him from attending the funeral in Germany so the Liverpool manager has a very personal right to feel strongly on the issue.

Mandatory vaccination for footballers here is not the way to go – they are not public-facing health or care workers – but if clubs hit unvaccinated players in the pocket it would be interesting to see how persuasive the specious nonsense of the anti-vaxxers would sound then.

While it should remain a free decision for each of them, equally it should be a free decision for a league or administration to set their own rules to protect their product and their population.

If that ends up costing the Refuseniks, well that is the consequence of their call.

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