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LONDON. — The new English season gets under way this weekend with EFL Cup games taking place.
But, does a flurry of cancelled pre-season fixtures suggest another campaign will be disrupted by the coronavius pandemic?
Matches at Bournemouth and Sheffield Wednesday mark the first competitive domestic fixtures played with no coronavirus restrictions in place since March 2020.
Covid-19 infections remain high – although they are falling — and a nationwide record of self-isolation alerts from NHS contact tracing has led to worries of a “pingdemic” spreading to football.
Already a number of pre-season fixtures have been disrupted or cancelled as a result of outbreaks or close contact tracing issues in recent days.
Manchester United’s friendly at Preston today is the latest to be called off because of positive cases, while Norwich have been similarly impacted, Arsenal scrapped their US pre-season tour and Newcastle lost three goalkeepers to self-isolation for one fixture.
So with the season about to start is there potential for chaos?
Last season, the Professional Footballers’ Association paid for players to be tested across the English Football League, at an estimated cost of £5m.
This term, there is no requirement to be tested.
It is acknowledged by all parties that players are at greater risk of both catching coronavirus or being “pinged” as a close contact than they were last season — because footballers were in strict ‘elite sort’ bubbles and had far less interaction with the general public, both in their professional and personal lives.
Now with restrictions lifted for the general public, the leagues are trying to navigate their way through this. At present, this means there is no mandatory requirement for clubs to test players.
The EFL have issued guidance to all their clubs, for both training and on matchdays.
Under that guidance, there are two sets of protocols, red and green. Most clubs are under the green protocols, which rely on daily screening to check if any players or staff are showing symptoms. — BBC Sport
Online Reporter