The corona protocol in professional football will not be tightened up. That was the message that the KNVB conveyed this afternoon in a meeting with the clubs. The Football Association’s testing policy continues to focus on the benefits of vaccination.
By Marijn Abbenhuijs
As a professional football player in the Netherlands, you are only obliged to be tested for corona before a match if you have not been vaccinated in the past four months or if your booster shot was given less than seven days ago. That was the measure that the KNVB used until January 17 and it has now been extended until February 1. The policy of the football association therefore seems to be mainly aimed at living with the corona virus as best as possible, instead of keeping it out at all costs.
Because football players who have received their booster vaccination will receive dispensation from the mandatory test, despite the fact that they can still get and transmit the corona virus. ,,But the chance of infection after the booster shot is nil”, explains Jan Bluyssen, professional football league manager at the KNVB. “And if there are complaints, everyone should still be tested. We have said that again.”
The association did not encounter much discussion from the football clubs on Tuesday. “We actually just went through with the clubs one more time how everything works if a match is canceled due to corona infections,” Bluyssen says. After all, the consultation took place a few days after the Kitchen Champion Division matches Excelsior-ADO Den Haag and TOP Oss-Jong AZ were postponed. And the last time matches had to be moved because of the corona virus was more than a year ago.
The chance of infection after the booster shot is nil
The KNVB’s protocol is less strict than doctor-microbiologist Bert Mulder of the Canisius Wilhelmina Hospital in Nijmegen advised in this newspaper last week. He said that “a lot more testing” is the only way to prevent infections within player groups. “I would recommend testing several times a week,” said Mulder, calling it a fallacy that the vaccine or booster is designed to prevent infections.
Moreover, the rules abroad seem to be a lot stricter. In France, all clubs are required to have their selection tested 48 hours before the game. In Spain, an antigen test must be taken daily and a PCR test once a week. In England, a rapid test is taken on every training day and before every match and in Italy it is also mandatory to test for corona before every game.
,,But with us it is also mandatory to be tested, just not if you have received the booster vaccine”, emphasizes Bluyssen. ,,I don’t have the idea that things are very different abroad than with us. Belgium has adopted the protocol from us and I understand that this applies to more countries.”
And so, after a period full of canceled training camps and postponed matches, it is mainly up to the clubs themselves to assess whether they also want to have their vaccinated players tested. In any case, the KNVB does not impose stricter guidelines on them.
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