In Great Britain not only have a lot of trucks standing still at the moment. The vaccination campaign, which was supposed to bring the country back to an everyday life of normalcy, has recently lost pace. A development that is also clear in the Premier League: not even a third of the professionals there have been fully vaccinated so far, only seven of the twenty clubs had a vaccination rate of more than fifty percent. So writes the Daily Mail. The Sun also reports that at least five England internationals who have been nominated by coach Gareth Southgate for the current squad have so far refused to be vaccinated.
Numbers that are irritating. Also Jürgen Klopp, the coach of Liverpool FC. At the weekend he assured that 99 percent of his team had been vaccinated and that he had not had to convince a single player or coach. And he said, “I didn’t just get the vaccine to protect myself, but to protect everyone around me.”
Klopp is not a virologist, not a scientist, but apparently a trainer with common sense. What he says is not only proven by various studies, it is obvious for everyone. Although the stadiums in the Premier League have long since been allowed to be filled to the last seat, far fewer people per week are currently dying in England as a result of corona disease than in April 2020 – shortly after the United Kingdom entered its first lockdown had passed.
Vaccinated and convalescents pay
And yet the obvious is still not visible to everyone. This also applies to the Bundesliga. There the clubs are still fighting for the fans to return to the spectator stands and are gradually switching to the 2-G model in order to be able to increase the occupancy rate in the arenas. However, many professionals still do not get vaccinated. In the ranks of Mainz 05, for example, every third player in the summer decided not to be vaccinated.
This is everyone’s right to make their own choice – but at the same time a contradiction: After all, vaccinated or convalescent people also pay the salary of unvaccinated players by purchasing tickets or sausages, who are mainly allowed to do their job again in front of a large audience. because the majority of people in England or Germany have chosen to want to protect themselves and others.
Perhaps it is just a coincidence that professional football is falling out of line again – the basketball league, for example, gives the vaccination rate for all players, coaches and supervisors at 99 percent – but perhaps it is also confirmation that there is an industry continues to do what it can. And not what she should be doing. Now would be a good time for self-reflection: What do the main actors in the football business actually do for others? Klopp went ahead, he raised his voice. Not everyone will like this, but maybe it can influence the undecided. It would be a win for everyone.
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