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?

@Onlineshopperforever

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

All of them?

It's tv money nothing else. No reason why it could not be postponed and then the latter stages played as a tournament in August as happened last year.

I speak as someone whose family are shareholders in a Football League club.

@hammeringinmyhead not necessarily- last week some British scientists had to visit a company in Spain which is developing ppe made from cellulose (obviously time sensitive and essential) and they were given permission. So it’s a very strict ban but you can apply to the consulates for permission.

Do they have a hairdresser as part of their 'bubble' as they are all still looking very groomed?

There are different rules for different cohorts of people, even though we’re told we’re all in this together. Sports people, tv performers, influencers, all seem to be treated differently from the house polloi.

We’re not all in this together. Some people are having a shit time, some are much happier.

To single out football is unfair, as others have said what about cricket, rugby motor racing. I miss going to games every week, watching on the tv is not the same

[quote QuentinInQuarantino]@hammeringinmyhead not necessarily- last week some British scientists had to visit a company in Spain which is developing ppe made from cellulose (obviously time sensitive and essential) and they were given permission. So it’s a very strict ban but you can apply to the consulates for permission.[/quote]
Ok, in that case I stand corrected. But I'm not sure how this fits in to your argument that they allow some exemptions, yet aren't doing so for Man United which suggests they're particularly worried about transmission in footballers. I think a visit for development of PPE directly related to the pandemic is a fairly specific exemption.

Because I’m saying the Spanish govt don’t think a match is essential enough to allow Man Utd into Spain, and so I think IANBU to think they shouldn’t have got around this by going to Italy instead, I think it should’ve been postponed.

@roundtable

Do they have a hairdresser as part of their 'bubble' as they are all still looking very groomed?

One of DH’s team is a former barber who apparently brought his clippers and scissors with him to the last away game and cut the hair of anyone who trusted him!

The Spanish government don’t get to make up the rules for the rest of the world though.

Just because one government doesn’t agree with something doesn’t automatically mean that they are right and everyone else is making the wrong choices.

Ah then every team must have a ‘former barber’ in it, that must be the answer!

@QuentinInQuarantino

Because I’m saying the Spanish govt don’t think a match is essential enough to allow Man Utd into Spain, and so I think IANBU to think they shouldn’t have got around this by going to Italy instead, I think it should’ve been postponed.

But the Spanish government only get to legislate for what happens within their borders, who is on the no-fly list etc, according to what they see on the ground in Spain. If Italy is happy to host a game or, as I gather Italy is zoned, whichever zone the game is in is happy to host it, and feels it can do so safely then surely that's their call?

DH's team were recently in an area which had just gone from amber to green, so all restaurants had reopened the day they arrived, but they still stayed in their strict bubble and remained in their hotel rooms apart from time actually at the stadium, because ultimately, it doesn't matter what their destination's Covid rules are, they're abiding by our government's elite sports exemption rules, and they know they'll be testing again at home within 48 hours of a game, and, like everyone else, don't want to infect one another or their own families.

@MrsMercedes

Ah then every team must have a ‘former barber’ in it, that must be the answer!

As I said, I know only about DH's specific team, which isn't PL football -- it came up because a government figure talked about how hairdressers reopening here was definitely on the long finger, so it prompted people who had been putting off dealing with their hair (because they hoped salons would reopen) to act. The box dye section of my local Boots is suddenly depleted, probably for the same reason.

@dootball

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.

Depends whether you count football as 'a good thing on TV' Nothing makes me switch off quicker. Maybe golf.

Forget the Spanish government then, what about the UK govt who have put Portugal on the red zone, so anyone from Portugal is considered risky enough to put in a hotel quarantine with a 10 year jail sentence for people breaking it, but safe enough to travel overseas and play a contact sport with the British team? Presumably unmasked.
It reminds me of Stanley Johnson’s workaround to get to Greece. Legal but in bad taste.

unmasked and of course, zero distancing

delightful

and UK teams covid awareness is of no use if any opposing teams have been half assed as well