A few days before “Boxing Day”, which is treated like a national shrine, the English Premier League is grappling with the effects of the Omikron variant.
After the corona virus led to a number of game cancellations over the weekend, the club bosses will meet for a crisis meeting this Monday.
“Christmas in danger?” Asked the tabloid “Daily Mail” on its website on Sunday in view of the threatening situation across the country.
Football is traditionally played in England on December 26th.
Only four out of ten scheduled games for the 18th matchday could be played over the weekend. Leeds United v Arsenal, Wolverhampton Wanderers v Chelsea, Newcastle United v Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool. Three matches had already been canceled on the previous match day.
The vaccination rate among Premier League professionals is nowhere near as high as in other European leagues, with 31 percent not yet protected against the virus as of last month. Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp made it clear at the weekend that the vaccination would play a role for him in future transfers. "If a player is not vaccinated at all, he is a constant threat to all of us," said the former Bundesliga coach according to British media, including the Guardian. “He doesn't want to be a threat. (...) But he is. ”It would therefore be very complicated to organize the processes.
The 54-year-old did not confirm any ongoing transfer negotiations, but he had thought about the Corona issue.
“And yes, it would definitely have an impact.” Last Thursday morning, Liverpool FC reported three players with positive corona tests despite a very high vaccination rate.
On Saturday alone, 10,059 new Omicron cases were reported in the UK - three times as many as the day before.
Omikron is now the dominant virus variant with around 60 percent of cases in England.
Omikron is also already dominant in Scotland.
Scientific advisors are calling for the measures to be tightened as quickly as possible in order to prevent the health system from being overloaded.
The German federal government has declared Great Britain a virus variant area and thus drastically restricted entry from the country from Monday.