The story behind the scenes

GladAfrica Championship

As is the case with a majority of the clubs in the topflight, clubs in the GladAfrica Championship do not force players to get vaccinated.

But a player from relegation-threatened Black Leopards, speaking on condition of anonymity, said rules do not force, but it was placed in such a way that their jobs would be on the line if they didn’t.

“Normally, they tell us to vaccinate, and everyone complied. From my knowledge, everyone at the club is vaccinated through the element of saying you vaccinate, you play. They force you, but not intentionally, if you know what I mean. They tell you something as if it does not matter, yet they know that they are forcing you to do it. We’re all vaccinated and now and then we do the COVID19 tests. That’s how it has been,” the player revealed.

Speaking to insiders at different clubs in the second tier, it’s clear to see that there are players who are not keen on vaccination because of their beliefs and the stigma surrounding the jabs. These players, however, did not want their identities revealed.

Other parts of the world

Last year, West Bromwich Albion striker Callum Robinson, who plays for the Republic of Ireland national team, announced that he did not want to get vaccinated, despite testing positive for COVID-19 on two occasions, which led to him missing some games for both club and national team.

“I haven’t been vaccinated, no. That’s my choice at this moment in time. I know, as you said, there are managers and people that will want you to do it, which is right in their way, the way they think, but everyone has their choice on what they want to do,” Robinson was quoted as saying by Sky Sports in 2021.

Despite his decision, the player was backed by his national team coach. After missing FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Portugal, Azerbaijan and Serbia, he returned to the team and remains a key part of the national side.

Another player who was in the media for revealing that he had not been vaccinated is Bayern Munich’s versatile star Joshua Kimmich. The German international had to quarantine on two separate occasions after he had been in contact with infected people, before contracting the virus himself.

When he finally tested negative, he was not fully fit, and he was not able to play for the rest of the calendar year. He has returned to the field in 2022 and, after early concerns, it has since been reported that he has changed his mind about being vaccinated.

Interestingly, most European clubs have continued to play players who have decided against being vaccinated.

Legally, where do the players stand?

Attorney Tristyn Coetsee has confirmed to the Siya crew that footballers can get their contracts terminated for deciding against getting vaccinated, if a club enforces the rule that everyone should get jabbed. Players, however, can still take the legal route to get their payouts.

“You can be dismissed for deciding not to take the vaccine. Yes, you have the right to bodily integrity in terms of section 12.2 of the constitution. The commissioner said that when you decide not to be vaccinated, the employee then becomes permanently incapacitated and by refusing to participate in taking the vaccine, it does not safeguard everyone else’s rights and it does not create a safe working environment,” Coetsee said.

“In football, there’s interactions in confined spaces. People aren’t wearing masks and while they take the necessary steps to sanitise everything, the risk is quite high. You basically can be dismissed. A contract can be terminated. You’d obviously have to follow the normal procedure of paying a player out. A player can enforce his rights to say his contract was terminated and he is not accepting the standard three months, which is what clubs like to do. That, then, obviously becomes a legal battle between club and player.”