The English Football League (EFL) has made a remarkable decision regarding its corona testing policy around matches. The association, which deals with the English cup tournaments, Championship, League One, League Two, among other things, is apparently done with the last minute cancellations and has therefore canceled player tests on match days. Despite the decision being given the green light by the EFL’s medical advisers, it has come under considerable criticism for the union.
Just like in the Premier League, clubs under the EFL flag also struggle with a lot of corona outbreaks. For example, four of the seven matches in the Championship were canceled last Wednesday; in the League One, no fewer than six out of ten matches could not take place. on Boxing Day the chaos was already complete: only 9 of the 32 scheduled EFL matches went ahead. Many of the duels were only canceled at the last minute, because the tests on the day itself revealed many infections. That late timing could count on a lot of irritation among supporters of clubs from the EL.
The association therefore, after approval of its own medical advisers, put a line through the player tests on match days. Only when a player showed symptoms was a test still necessary. The EFL defended its decision by stating that normal safety protocols (daily testing on non-match days, social distancing, separating based on vaccination status and wearing mouth masks) were enough to limit the risk of contamination.
The union came under criticism from domestic virologists. “It’s incomprehensible,” said Dr Julian Tang of the University of Leicester. “If your goal is to stop infections in your teammates and opponents, missing tests doesn’t really help prevent that situation. You can save one game, but then have to cancel two. As omikron spreads and your bullet dodged one week, the bullet is more likely to hit you the next.”
For the time being, the Premier League does not care about the policy in the lower divisions. In the top division, players test themselves nine times a week. Every day they do an antigen test, twice a week a PCR test. In the case of match days, Premier League players test the day before. Late cancellations were due to the waiting time for the results of those tests.