No more gymnasium for the Cognac handball club! Because with the campaign for the third dose of the vaccine against the Covid, the vaccination center of the city settles again on Vauzelles handball court from Tuesday January 4, for about three months. As a result, the club must go into exile in the Félix-Gaillard gymnasium … where other clubs are already playing. At ALJO Cognac Handball, we are annoyed by this decision announced at the last minute, which will “significant financial consequences.”
“Bad anticipation”
“It’s an easy decision: we put the vaccination center in the hand room because people are used to it”, annoys Richard Nordlinger, the president of ALJO Cognac Handball for more than ten years. “The place is already known, it’s close to the hospital …” He does not dispute the decision to install this vaccinodrome, but “the non-organization and the bad anticipation, it seems that everything is decided at the last minute.” Because the relocation of the vaccination center was not announced until Monday, December 27, just nine days before the club’s move.
I agree, we are just a sports club and it is not much to deal with a public health problem. But could we just make a decision earlier? There, we are only in the reaction to the emergency. There might be a fourth dose … Will my club have to move again at the last minute? “- Richard Nordlinger, from ALJO Cognac Handball
160 euros fine per game moved
“This move has significant economic consequences”, deplores Richard Nordlinger. Because changing the place and / or the time of a match less than 45 days before its date, is equivalent to … 160 euros fine ! “And there, the handball federation does not know the ARS or the hospital, they know the club … And bim, it’s the club that will pay!” Richard Nordlinger immediately wrote to the federation to explain the situation, hoping be exempt almonds.
Side matches, the club will make arrangements with the basketball team. “But of course we will have to adapt in terms of schedules and number of training sessions.” The measure weighs, once again, on club life : “The members asked us at one point to organize snacks after the games for the children. They want to get together, together”, explains Richard Nordlinger. “But that too, we no longer have the right …”