For European football clubs, January rhymes with dangers. They do not escape the Omicron variant, responsible for multiple solitary confinements after the holidays. Eighteen Premier League games have thus been postponed, 80 players are positive in Serie A, and some top names like Bayern Munich deplore significant outbreaks.
This new leap in contamination comes at an already tense period in the calendar. It is in addition to the many departures of players for the African Cup of Nations, which begins Sunday in Cameroon. The red lantern of Ligue 1, Saint-Etienne, saw the departure of five important players, including Wahbi Khazri (Tunisia) and Denis Bouanga (Gabon), his two top scorers. Other clubs have been fortunate to see some players give up the competition. In Lens, the Malian Cheick Doucouré and the Ivorian Seko Fofana remained by “personal choices”, says the blood and gold club.
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In England, Liverpool is particularly handicapped with the absences of its African stars Mohamed Salah (Egypt) and Sadio Mané (Senegal). But not all play the game: clubs, however forced to release their players, went to the standoff with the selections. This is the case of Watford, 17th in the Premier League. The club has been criticized by the Senegalese Federation for trying to “to block” his Senegalese winger Ismaïla Sarr, finally released. Nigerian striker Emmanuel Dennis has been retained by Watford, the club explaining that the “Super Eagles” had not called him “on time”.
In Spain, Alavés (16th in Liga) suffers the full brunt of the combined effect of the CAN and the pandemic. His two professional goalkeepers, Fernando Pacheco and Antonio Sivera, are Covid-19 positive and the reserve team’s goalkeeper, Jesus Owono, has been called up by Equatorial Guinea. In Bologna (10 in Serie A), concern is also in order. “It’s a difficult situation. With the cases of Covid, the injured and the CAN, twelve players are missing”, coach Sinisa Mihajlovic summed up, before joking:
“You have to see the bright side: I became the highest paid coach in the world, I coach a reserve team earning a lot of money!”
Sinisa Mihajlovic, Bologna coach (Serie A)in press conference
Faced with this situation, Bologna like other teams (Bordeaux, Lorient, Bayern Munich, Liverpool this week …) have no other choice but to ask for their meetings to be postponed. Some clubs, for their part, rail against the medical protocol. “We have not yet learned to live with the Covid, recently pointed out Eintracht Frankfurt coach Oliver Glasner. Impose 14 days of quarantine on people who have no symptoms: there, we could improve things “.
In France, the League has integrated these questions by shortening the duration of isolation of vaccinated players, from ten to seven days, or even five in the event of a new negative test. But French clubs may soon have to face the mandatory vaccination pass. The measure, currently being debated in Parliament, could, as of January 15, deprive the most reluctant players in the face of the vaccine from competition.
“It’s going to be an approach to have with them. I started talking to them about it. If they want to play competitive football, they won’t have a choice. Will they be reluctant to get vaccinated? ? Certainly”
Thierry Delmeule, doctor of the Girondins de BordeauxAFP
The vaccination status of footballers may even become an important criterion during the transfer market, open throughout the month of January. “It will have its influence, undoubtedly, assured mid-December Jürgen Klopp, the Liverpool coach. If a player is not vaccinated at all, he is a constant threat to all of us. “
The transfer window also promises to be disturbed by the risk of contamination. Will the clubs let go of players lacking a game but potentially useful in the event of a cluster? “Clubs are struggling to leave their players, because the specter of Covid hangs over these clubs, too, noted Pascal Dupraz, new coach of Saint-Etienne. We must arm ourselves with patience. “