Covid, boom in cases Access to the locker room only for vaccinated people

Words from a vocabulary that everyone hoped would no longer be needed are back: bubble, team group, tampons. Usual references in 2020 of the lockdown and a troubled recovery, much less in this year in which football had managed to dribble the Covid up to reopen the stadiums to the public. Instead, the sense of alarm hovers over the balloon again, an inevitable consequence of the explosion of infections. The bulletin is full of positives after returning from the Christmas holidays. After Simone Verdi, the virus stops another Turin footballer. In Juventus the same fate for the Belgian Under 23 defender, Koni De Winter. Four infected in the Fiorentina team group (one player), three in Empoli. The positivity of Victor Kovalenko prompted Spezia to cancel yesterday’s session to check the whole squad.

In other categories there are outbreak numbers: 10 infected in Frosinone in Serie B, 18 in Triestina in Serie C. The clubs run for cover. Today almost all the big players resume training: Juventus, Inter, Milan, Rome and Naples (Atalanta has been at work since yesterday). They will do so with even stricter measures than the protocols usually followed. Fiorentina had set a good example and two days ago had its players perform the drive-in swabs without getting out of the car to avoid contact. For the first few days, the leaders Inter will ask the players to change, take a shower and have lunch alone in the Pinetina rooms, to minimize the risk of spreading the virus. These are precautions that refer to the summer of last year, disheartening because they force us to face a reality that is difficult to accept. All the more so considering that Serie A footballers have done their duty against the pandemic with very high percentages: 98% of athletes are vaccinated.

Many teams are fully immunized. In some clubs there are peaks of up to 2-3 players still without any dose. From 10 January they risk not being able to enter the locker room and gym anymore. Decision of the Department of Sport led by Valentina Vezzali, who has also extended to professional athletes the need to have the Green Pass strengthened to access these spaces. It is a de facto vaccination obligation, but without a precise intervention as has been done for doctors, nurses, teachers and law enforcement agencies. In theory, these athletes could turn to the ordinary judge to challenge the provision because an act without the force of law conditions an employment relationship governed by higher-level rules. The government does not seem willing to make a clearer statement. But the club and the players’ union hope to avoid judicial clashes by convincing the last doubters. –