Is there an interest in vaccinating professional footballers?
Emmanuel Orhant:
This is a file on which we have been working with our infectious
diseases specialists
for two or three months.
The interest is to put the player in complete safety with his health.
The vaccine is a certainty of having virtually no chance of developing serious illness.
In Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 since March, we have had 300 cases concerning players.
Among them, a player was in intensive care and another hospitalized, in addition to a few cases of pathologies followed by specialists.
It's already reassuring, but perhaps the vaccine could have reduced these cases to zero, which is our goal.
The other benefit of the vaccine is that if you vaccinate everyone, you can be sure that you won't have to postpone a single match.
Does the vaccine mean the end of PCR testing?
We must ask ourselves the question.
From what we currently know, the vaccine allows you to protect yourself, but not to protect others.
Sanitary measures will continue anyway.
It is not a quick fix.
Stopping all PCR testing between matches, this could be an option as players will not be able to get sick, but they will still be able to bring the virus home.
It will be a risk / benefit trade-off.
The benefit is that you would stop putting a cotton swab in your nose regularly.
The risk is that we can bring germs into the house.
In any case, the clubs will not be able to impose the vaccine on their players unless the government imposes the vaccine on the population.
But this is not such a big pitfall.
Today, on their list of 30 players, many clubs already have more than 10 players who have already tested positive and therefore appear to be protected for several months.
If you vaccinate half of the others, you will only have 10 players likely to be sick, but the protocol does not imply postponing matches until the 11th.
Should sport and football be a priority in vaccination?
My thinking is very clear: the government says, we do.
It's understandable that sport is not a priority right now, but if the government feels at some point that there are enough vaccines to give 10,000 professional athletes to ensure the continuity of the sport, we will be ready, we will have all the arguments for the clubs.
I still say to myself that at some point, in terms of fairness compared to other countries and in view of the Olympic Games, it might perhaps be good to put it in place, if the stocks are indeed those hoped for. the next few months.
But whatever happens, it will remain a government decision.
For the Euro (and the Champions League), UEFA is subject to the laws of the European Union, but this also implies individual freedom.
I would be damn surprised if individual freedom was pushed aside in the name of a football competition.
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