‘Stop Dublin’s Euro games or make players quarantine’
top international soccer players taking part in the rescheduled European Championship games in Dublin should be made to undergo a two-week quarantine, a health expert has said.
professor Gerry Killeen, infectious diseases specialist at University College Cork, said this is the least the players should do, but staging the games in the first place is ‘not a good idea’.
the expert – who is a member of the Independent Scientific Advocacy Group, which is seeking a ‘zero Covid’ strategy to eliminate the virus from the country – said: ‘If the four games scheduled for Dublin go ahead as planned, then the eight teams involved, plus all of their backroom staff, must fulfil the same quarantine rules as everybody else.
‘We have bigger issues we should be focusing on if we want to get back to normality on a sustainable basis,’ he said.
‘But if they do come, they should be required to go through full, managed quarantine.’
the world’s top tennis players had to quarantine in supervised hotels when they arrived in Melbourne last month for the Australian open.
However, a case of the new UK variant is believed to have originated from a quarantine hotel associated with the tournament, and the city was plunged into a five-day lockdown last week.
Dublin is one of 12 host cities for Europe’s biggest football tournament, which had to be postponed last year because of the pandemic.
the four games scheduled for the Aviva Stadium are provisionally set for June 14, 18, 23 and 29. the tournament would involve teams moving around Europe with stopovers of less than two days in some cases, making mandatory two-week quarantines impossible.
A Football Association of Ireland spokesman told the Irish Mail on Sunday it remains committed to ‘the hosting of our four games as scheduled’.
He said: ‘the latest position is that a decision for all 12 host cities will be made by Uefa in April by which stage the likely scenarios on attendance will be confirmed for each city.’
the FAI says Uefa has indicated to each of the host cities its intention to continue with the original format of the tournament, subject to public health authority guidelines in all host countries and will continue to plan on that basis.
‘As per the request of Uefa of each hosting city, Dublin’s hosting partners – the FAI,
Dublin City Council, Aviva Stadium and our Government’s Department of Sport – are examining possible scenarios for staging the games scheduled for Dublin in this Covid-19 environment and we will report
back accordingly to Uefa, with whom we are in constant dialogue,’ said a spokesman.
‘We will then await the next stage of the process from Uefa.
‘We are working with the authorities – and will continue to do so over the coming weeks, to put our best foot forward in challenging circumstances – but as always public health policy comes first and we will continue to follow that advice accordingly.’
The European Championships had been due to be the biggest sporting event ever held in Ireland and was set to be worth more than €100m to the Irish economy, with the creation of 2,800 jobs.
It was anticipated that between 76,000 and 96,000 additional tourists would visit Dublin for the tournament but now it is highly unlikely there will be any spectators if the games go ahead.
Meanhwile, in a further example of Covid making its way into sport despite tight restrictions, France wing Gabin Villiere and prop Mohamed Haouas have tested positive for Covid-19, the French rugby federation confirmed yesterday.
It takes the tally of positive cases in the squad to three players since France beat Ireland at the Aviva Stadium last Sunday.
Scrum-half Antoine Dupont tested positive on Friday, days after head coach Fabien Galthie, forwards coach William Servat and another staff member returned positive Covid tests.
France are scheduled to play Scotland in the Six Nations at the Stade de France on February 28.
Les Bleus lead the Six Nations with two wins from two games, the second of which came in Dublin against Ireland last Sunday.
They have not won the championship since 2010, the year of their last Grand Slam.