December 25, (THEWILL) – As most countries around the world emerged from a global lockdown imposed by governments as a result of the outbreak of COVID-19 to fully-packed stadiums at various sporting events, it seemed that the worst days of the deadly virus were over for sportsmen and women, as well as fans all over the world. Those gloomy days spent watching old competitions and reruns of previous games on television had become a thing of the past and sporting events would no longer be held on empty stadiums devoid of the fanfare and celebratory cheers of excited fans. At the very least, that was the expectation and, for a good while, it held true.
As the world gradually returned to normal sporting events, there were heightened expectations that fans were going to be allowed to participate in the grandest of sporting events in the calendar, the Olympics Games scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Japan.
Such expectations were hinged on the assurances of the organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that the utmost care had been taken to ensure the games were not superspreading events. They promised to stick to the most stringent COVID-19 health and safety regulations and abide by the protocols enforced by local and international medical professionals.
Yet, as local cases of infection in Japan’s hosting prefectures shot up, the government and organisers had no choice but to shut out all but a handful of spectators from the events in the most unusual of Olympic Games ever organised in the history of the global sporting showpiece.
Although cases of COVID-19 infections soared in Japan while the Olympics events took place, with thousands of athletes and other support crew, the analysis proved that the Olympic Games had little direct impact on infections in Japan. This attested to the hard work of the organisers, who tested and retested athletes and the support crew and insisted on the strictest application of existing protocols. These protocols enforced the banning of any manner of mixing up, either through shopping, sight-seeing or public transportation, among athletes, while encouraging them to promptly leave Japan after their events.
These steps ensured a certain level of safety, such that when the closing ceremony took place the organisers of the games reported a 0.03 per cent positivity rate from their testing, far lower than the current average of 23.6 per cent in Tokyo city itself. The containment measures employed by event organisers of the Games, which were delayed by a year and held in largely empty venues as a safety precaution, thereafter became a model for the Paralympics, which followed in the same city.
Indeed, Tokyo’s playbook became the manual in the organisation of sporting events that followed the gradual return to normalcy across the globe. That the Tokyo model proved successful was immensely pivotal in the overarching belief in the possibility of a post-lockdown hosting triumph.
The confidence to resume attendance at sporting events blossomed within this milieu. By the time the postponed continental football competition swung into full-blown action in Europe, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had to recommend caution once more. Crowds had returned to football stadiums, pubs and bars in host cities and these were driving the then rise in coronavirus infections in Europe, to the chagrin of the organisation.
It was a ridiculous rise because a 10-week decline in new coronavirus infections across the region came to an end as football fans, who threw caution to the wind, created an inevitable new wave of infections, according to WHO.
The warning from the health body was considered timely as the number of new cases rose by 10 per cent just after the warning, a rise driven by mixing of crowds in Euro 2020 host cities, travel and easing of social restrictions.
However, the availability of vaccines changed the tone of the world to coronavirus-related discourse in terms of sports. Although welcomed by the general populace, the vaccines were met with mixed reactions from professional sportsmen and women, who were not all sold on the extreme necessity to inject into their bloodstreams medications that were only just being readied for the mainstream.
As a result, a good number of professionals held back from taking the jabs. To encourage the rapid vaccination of their footballers ahead of the United Kingdom government’s plans to initiate stricter regulations with a rise in new cases of COVID-19, the English Premier League went as far as to offer a special “reward” to clubs with the highest number of vaccinated players. This was seen as a necessary step as only 13 of the 20 clubs in the top division had squads where fewer than 50 per cent of the players were fully vaccinated against coronavirus by September ending.
League officials, worried about the relatively low levels of COVID-19 protection for Premier League players, wrote directly to clubs offering this incentive especially with winter approaching. The League’s officials were desirous to ensure the elite level of the game remained one step ahead of any stricter regulation that the government was going introduce. It helped to encourage more vaccinations but as current realities make increasing obvious, it has not brought about the resolution of the Premier League’s COVID-19 headache.
This is immediately clear when the recent instances of positive COVID-19 tests are taken into account. When considered alongside the fact that the League confirmed last Monday that there had been a record 42 positives over the previous seven days, representing the highest figure recorded since COVID testing began as part of Project Restart during the 2019/2020 season, it begins to look dire for the continued participation in all and any sports in the very near future. It also makes it easier to appreciate why, as part of actions laid out to stem this sudden jump in positive cases, the Premier League players and club staff are again required to take a lateral flow test every day to be allowed into training grounds. These new measures were agreed to on Tuesday last week. The aim is to combat the coronavirus Omicron variant and keep the coronavirus from spreading any further.
It is however behind the virus. Already, no fewer than five EPL clubs have reported positive cases including Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur, Norwich, Aston Villa any Brighton and Hove Albion. There were also positive cases reported at Leicester. By Thursday, five fixtures in the midweek and weekend schedules of the League had suffered COVID-19-related postponements. The December 12 Tottenham versus Brentford was the first to be postponed. Then, United’s match against Brentford followed a few days later after the Red Devils announced that numerous first-team staff and players had tested positive for the virus, resulting in the suspension of first-team operations at Carrington. An outbreak among the Hornets’ squad, brought the postponement to Burnley’s match against Watford on Wednesday, December 15, just as Spurs’ trip to Leicester was similarly shifted. On Thursday, United’s December 18 match against Brighton at Old Trafford was postponed.
The effect that the rescheduling of these matches will wreak on the EPL calendar for 2022 aside, there is no guarantee that this will be the last set of games that will be postponed before the Christmas and new year periods are over. Yet, clubs will seek to avoid any more postponements, which might result in a fixture backlog and expose the league to requests for reimbursements from TV partners.
The reality of the fresh COVID-19 threats is that it extends beyond the ambit of the EPL. In much the same light as happened in 2020, the virus is doing a number to sports across regions where aggressive testing is revealing positive cases among sportsmen and women. On Thursday last week, it was revealed that the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the National Basketball Players’ Association (NBPA) were looking into modifying current weekly testing protocols in the wake of growing number of positive cases in the league. Options that the two bodies were exploring included restricting outside access for teams in visiting areas, a protocol administered last season before the COVID-19 vaccines became readily available. They were also open to ensuring that players were tested daily, except for their days off.
As in the EPL, the Chicago Bulls were hit by an outbreak between Thanksgiving and Christmas, forcing them to postpone two games this week. Outside Chicago, the Brooklyn Nets barely had enough players to field a team against the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday last week, just as the Raptors system enforcing a 50% capacity at their arena. So far, Giannis Antetokounmpo, James Harden, Dwight Howard, and Ja Morant (who is already out with a knee injury) were among players who have lately tested positive, leading the NBA to review its existing set of protocols.
In Hockey, a rash of COVID-19 instances among the Calgary Flames, forced the National Hockey League (NHL) to issue its third COVID-19 delay of the season on Monday, postponing the team’s next three games. The NHL announced another postponement on Tuesday, cancelling the Carolina Hurricanes’ game later that day after six players tested positive for COVID-19. If that was not unfortunate enough, the National Football League, for American football, had a record-breaking Monday as well, with 36 players testing positive for COVID-19, according to reports.
Over the last three weeks, the seven-day average of new coronavirus infections has increased by 24 percent in the United Kingdom, 28 percent in the United States, and 65 percent in Canada, indicating that the latest outbreaks in sports correlate with an increase in COVID-19 cases throughout North America and Europe. When such upticks occurred in 2020, the prevalent medical advice was to flatten the curve by a shutdown of all sports activities. This was the start of the global lockdowns. Following the adoption of new coronavirus restrictions in England two weeks ago, the Premier League advised clubs to revert to emergency measures such as social separation and masking, as may be the case in the NBA soon.
All these point to the possibility that, if there is no noticeable plateauing of the rise in numbers of positive cases, another round of lockdowns may result with concern for health and safety given priority. A new necessity to flatten the curve may arise and bring unnecessary and non-life threatening activities, like sports events, to another abrupt, temporal and indefinite stop. That may affect the AFCON for next year, as well. It has already been twice postponed. It looks like a third is not too farfetched. The question to consider is if this will be the new norm, intermittent periods of starts and stops as one virus or the other halts regular human activities for the sake of health and safety?
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
