Currently, if a football player tests positive for COVID-19 the whole squad is being quarantined for 14 days. This means that players who had a 3-week preseason training, now have to pause for 2 weeks, and have only 2 weeks until their first league game. Long interruptions of pre-season training will not only adversely affect players’ physical capacity but also puts the integrity of the whole competition into question since not all teams would have the opportunity to train on an equal playing field. Not to mention, players who do not make a liveable wage from football, but must supplement their income with separate employment. How can they be absent from their employment for 2 consecutive weeks, only to return for training after 2 weeks with the risk of another player testing positive for COVID-19? This is not a sustainable system.

Comprehensive and sustainable medical protocols, addressing various possible scenarios should have been established by MFA in line with health authorities, before training resumed. Unfortunately, this did not happen and we are now forced into a reactive rather than proactive situation.

Players need to be monitored daily for clinical signs and symptoms by the club’s medical staff. Players must also be tested regularly, with those who test positive put in quarantine, and others allowed to resume training, but followed up with further tests. Whilst we understand that this requires considerable resources and testing capacities, we do not see any other way if we want the league to start.