The Premier League is in the midst of a coronavirus crisis that is worsening by the hour, let alone the day. There are officially 42 positive cases across the league, a record high since documentation of this began, as the new Omicron variant surges across the United Kingdom.
The number of fixture postponements continues to pile up, with Manchester United-Brighton & Hove Albion and Tottenham-Leicester City the latest pair to join the list of nixed matches. Amidst this atmosphere, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp used his match vs Newcastle program notes to call for people to get their covid-19 vaccination and booster shots.
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Klopp continued his pattern of forward thinking behavior during this pandemic (which we may have to accept as endemic now). He has previously: hit out at vaccine refusal, was moved to tears by a video of health care workers singing Liverpool’s signature song YNWA, encouraged his club’s supporters to celebrate the end of their title drought safely and provided a perspective well beyond football during Project Restart.
Jurgen Klopp also destroyed the stale, old “stick to sports” cliche by pointing out how everyone involved in the game says it’s good for the game.
Therefore he is sticking to football.
via the Liverpool official website:
“If I come across friends or people I care about in my life away from football and they tell me they haven’t had a jab yet, I do my best to encourage them to listen to experts. It’s never a case of ‘listen to me’ — it’s always ‘listen to those who know’.
“Ignore those who pretend to know. Ignore lies and misinformation. Listen to people who know best. If you do that, you end up wanting the vaccine and the booster.
“The ‘stick to football’ abuse so misses the point. … People who are smarter than I ever could be have come to the rescue of society by creating this for the world. We are very blessed in this country and throughout Europe to have such incredible access to it. I see that as a privilege and one I will always be grateful for.”
Powerful, important words from Jurgen Klopp there. Meanwhile Brentford manager Thomas Frank has called for the Premier League itself to go on pause, and attempt to clean up the current mess.
“We think we should postpone the full round of Premier League games this weekend,” Frank said in a news conference on Thursday.
“COVID cases are going through the roof at all Premier League clubs, everyone is dealing with it and having problems.
“To postpone this round and also the Carabao Cup round would give everyone a week at least, or four or five days to clean and do everything at the training ground so everything is clean and you break the chain.”
“Also in football, you need close contact. Physios need to do their job with players in treatment. We are in dressing room on matchdays, we are travelling by coaches so it’s a little bit more difficult to work from home.”
“We fully respect that we want to play and it is important football keeps going, and this way we can make sure Boxing Day keeps going, I’m 100% sure of that,” Frank added.
“This Omicron variant is running like wildfire around the world and I think we need to do all we can to protect and avoid it.
“I think we can do a lot by closing down training grounds for three, four or five days, and then we can go again.”
Well done Jurgen Klopp and Thomas Frank! It will be interesting to see where this all goes. I would expect the situation to actually get worse before it gets better.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Bank (TheSportsBank.Net) and author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” as well as “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune, and co-hosts the After Extra Time podcast. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.