The Premier League wants to ‘reward clubs’ with high coronavirus vaccination rates
The Premier League has revealed plans to ‘reward’ clubs with high coronavirus vaccination rates by relaxing the strict travel rules imposed by the league, as per the Daily Telegraph.
This comes after it emerged that over half of the league’s sides have less than 50% of their squads fully vaccinated and have written to the clubs as a way to encourage them to advise players on getting their jabs.
And it now looks as though the Premier League are preparing go even further, with reports suggesting that they will exclude players who are not fully vaccinated in the plans to relax protocols with regards to the United Kingdom’s rules on red-list countries ahead of next month’s World Cup Qualifiers.
Am told Premier League players not fully vaccinated against coronavirus face being excluded from plans to relax the UK's red-list rules for next month's World Cup qualifiers. More @TeleFootball soon.
— Ben Rumsby (@ben_rumsby) September 29, 2021
This will mean that players who fail to get both jabs in time will be forced to isolate, as per the government guidelines, meaning several key players could be made unavailable for their respective sides.
In a note sent by the Premier League to all 20 clubs, they stated that: “According to the data we have, only seven clubs’ squads are more than 50 per cent fully vaccinated, so we have a way to go.
“We are considering if and how best we can ‘reward’ those squads/players who are most Covid-compliant and who have opted to be vaccinated.
“It is increasingly clear that full vaccination will be the key criteria for Government and health authorities, in terms of international travel and potential Covid certification at large scale events.”
So far, only three clubs have gone public on their vaccination numbers with Leeds United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Brentford all confirming numbers between 89-100% of their squad have had both jabs.
N’Golo Kante became the latest high-profile player to test positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday, before Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel said it wasn’t his place to encourage his players to get the vaccine.
Related links:
- Thomas Tuchel says it’s not his place to tell players to get vaccinated
- Steve Bruce admits lots of Newcastle United players have not been vaccinated
- Argentinian Premier League stars could face extra two weeks of quarantine after allegedly lying on official Covid documents
