AIBU to be cross about footballers COVID travels?

[QuentinInQuarantino]

Man Utd were supposed to be playing Real Sociedad in Spain, but as Spain has a ban on arrivals from the UK by air, BOTH teams are flying to Italy to play there instead.

Arsenal were due to play in Portugal, which is on the red list, so again, both Arsenal and the Portuguese team are playing in Italy.

I live in Spain and haven’t seen me entire family since 2019. SIL is Portuguese and her whole family haven’t even met 1 y/o DN.

AIBU to think that these matches aren’t essential work travel and that it’s irresponsible for all four teams (and Italy!) to be playing right now?

You are absolutely not!! How in bloody hell is FOOTBALL essential?! Its a mockery of 'stay at home or people will die 'look in their eyes' etc etc.

The whole idea that football is more important than everything else is enraging. Footballers are setting a terrible example to young people and it’s literally the most pointless career there is.

It sends the wrong message. My sister lives in Melbourne and they are holding the Australian Open, so loads of tennis players are flying in. Meanwhile Australian citizens have been stranded abroad for almost a year because the quarantine hotels can only take so many arrivals per week.

It's not just football though is it - you are being unreasonable to single it out when the same is happening to lots of top level sport.

And there is an argument that having good things on TV makes it easier for some people to stay at home that if there wasn't.

I totally understand where you're coming from but I disagree. DH is a season ticket holder at his club and has been missing it and his mates very badly.

I don't know how he would have got through lockdown(s) without the distraction of watching the football. He normally only watches MOTD but I wouldn't mind there being football on 24/7 if it keeps him sane.

Roll on the spring so he can get back out on the allotment...

I see where you’re coming from, but I’m glad football is continuing this lockdown. Not for me, I have no interest in it and couldn’t give a shit about football results, but I know that in this time where a lot of people have nothing else going on in life because of covid, following football is providing some entertainment and light relief.

The football clubs have more than enough money to repeatedly test people or quarantine or do whatever they need to do, and it’s not like they’ll be going round the supermarkets or tourist destinations. Let them get on with it and provide the small amount of relief that they are giving to people who are bored out of their brains just now.

Frankly? it's shit. But Bread and circuses, innit?

I love football and really miss going to matches, but watching it on TV is ... meh. So I'm just ignoring it for the most part.

Even though there is an argument for (some) professional sport to continue, to generate revenue, provide entertainment etc....with football it's all the massive pile-on hugs when they're celebrating a goal and post match, I saw one (lower league) team all crammed into a tiny changing room and singing/celebrating...
But I think international sport is definitely much higher risk and seems unfair.

The work doesn't have to be essential, you just need to have to travel to do your work. If their job for the day was to play each other, they needed to travel.

I do think the travelling to a third country is misguided though.

It’s elite sport,I don’t have any real interest but lots of people do
I am sure a lot of people get a lot of enjoyment from it
Why pick on football when golf cricket rugby tennis are all playing on to some extent
I see it as a positive in a time of misery

Work is allowed, it doesn't have to be essential you can go to work if you can't work from home.

I’m not too into sports and DH has since told me that it’s all sports doing this.

(These two teams in particular reflect my SIL and my geographical situations, so it’s an interesting comparison on a personal level and why it came to my attention)

I do think it sends out the wrong message. And I disagree that just because it’s entertaining for many, it is essential work travel (which is the only reason you’re allowed to cross border travel at the moment). I know someone whose mother has died (not of COVID) in Spain and they were denied travel permission (by both countries) both before and after the death.

But it’s okay for big groups of young people to travel between hotspots to do an activity it’s impossible to do in a masked or socially distanced way?

I'm ok with national level sport for the entertainment value for those who enjoy it, but people really shouldn't be irresponsibly going abroad for what is essentially, non essential.
also resentful about the already privileged, highly paid celebrities and footballers gallivanting and having a life whilst the rest of us can't go a few miles

The main reason elite sport is still going is because it's a huge and important industry, it's nothing to do with the masses needing their football fix.

The Premier League alone contributes around £3.5billion pa in tax. We do need to collect that revenue from somewhere.

Personally, I'm more annoyed by the constant rule breaking house parties they all have.

It’s the circumventing of the travel bans by involving a third country which seems so irresponsible to me though.

Like, there’s a reason Arsenal aren’t allowed to go to Portugal - bringing the Portuguese team out of Portugal to mix with them in another place isn’t going to negate that? Any Portuguese player unlucky enough to be incubating the Brazilian variant (and pcrs aren’t faultless as we know) is at risk of passing it to Arsenal players and now also Italians!

But yes, money, bread and circuses.

DH works in sport — not premier league football — and his team have government elite sport exemptions to travel, in strict circumstances. The players are living in strict bubbles, they test, get on a charter plane, coach straight to hotel, stay at hotel without contact with anyone else until they leave for the game, play to an empty stadium, then straight back to the airport home. Then test again before they train. Obviously some games have been cancelled or postponed because of other countries’ rules.

DH’s team/academy/staff bubble of maybe 250 has had I think three cases in total, back in the autumn, when a couple of overseas players shared a car, stupidly, to go to sort out visas at their embassy.

It’s an industry which poses no risk to the public, as games happen behind closed doors. I assume the government thinks that if the testing and strict bubbling and travel guidelines are adhered to, it’s as well to allow an industry which can function safely to go ahead and generate what revenue it can from tv etc, rather than needing to prop up furlough schemes. Also, while it’s of no interest to me, sport is a real morale booster for significant numbers of people. My 80 year old ILs who have hardly seen anyone except for grocery drops for almost a year, would go mad without it.

That’s interesting @Overdoor and great to have the other perspective.

I still can’t quite square it with the many people whose businesses or even homes have been lost when the govt has forced them to stop trading. I’m also not sure I share hour faith in the players’ sticking to rules when as a pp said there have been house parties etc. And people would quite rightly be up in arms if my family and I met up in Italy to avoid travel bans, even though I think in most cases the right to meet your grandchild or bury your parent trumps the right to play a game.

@LadyCatStark

The whole idea that football is more important than everything else is enraging. Footballers are setting a terrible example to young people and it’s literally the most pointless career there is.

My job relies on football.

Am I pointless too?

Except you are mistaken in the guidelines. It is essential travel for work. So can the work happen without the travel> In this case no it can't, so they are allowed to travel.

It is not travel for essential work. However, to me as an avid fan watching the matches are keeping me somewhat sane in covid times so personally I would still class it as essential work (this is of curse tongue in cheek but I thought I had better spell it out as someone will no doubt soon be on for a rant that it is not )!

@QuentinInQuarantino

That’s interesting *@Overdoor* and great to have the other perspective.

I still can’t quite square it with the many people whose businesses or even homes have been lost when the govt has forced them to stop trading. I’m also not sure I share hour faith in the players’ sticking to rules when as a pp said there have been house parties etc. And people would quite rightly be up in arms if my family and I met up in Italy to avoid travel bans, even though I think in most cases the right to meet your grandchild or bury your parent trumps the right to play a game.

Except it is not the right to play a game is it? It is the right to make their living.

I dont think football should be being played at the moment. Because it sends out a mixed messages and it proves that we are not all in it together. Players and managers clearly cannot stop hugging each other despite repeated warnings.
However, many people do enjoy watching football and I think if teams have the luxury of being able to play then all matches should be available on mainstream TV.
But at the end of the day this is all about money .......

I agree OP, but no doubt you’ll have football fans attacking you for saying this. My DB even said during the first lockdown that he missed watching football more than seeing his family and friends..🙄

So many footballers have broken the rules throughout the pandemic. Marcus Rashford is very much the exception, they are still mostly a bunch of spoiled, selfish, entitled pricks who think they can do as they want without consequences.

i think it is wrong that big sport is happening. why is it deemed so important, no SD in football for instance. at least in say Snooker they SD and stay in a hotel and no hugging.

YABU. It pisses me off how anti-football MN is. Yes to all the tax it generates, the strict bubbles mentioned by Overdoor, and the Australian Open going ahead. Nobody ever seems to start a thread about Lewis Hamilton & friends descending on Abu Dhabi in December. Funny that.