The Bundesliga is set to resume it’s matches in May while the Premier League is also trying hard to set up shop during the early days of June. But whenever these games resume, the footballers will need to be ready to accept some really drastic changes.
There have already been talks of issuance of a new set of hygiene guidelines before the matches are restarted and it seems like footballers spitting on the pitch is one of the major issues which needs to be tackled first.
Michel D’Hooghe, Fifa’s Medical Committee chairman, has raised some serious concerns over this spitting problem and he’s also proposed brandishing a yellow card to footballers who fail are caught in such action.
‘This is a common practice in football and it is not very hygienic,’ D’Hooge told The Telegraph.
‘So when we start football again I think we should have to avoid that at maximum. The question is whether that will be possible. Perhaps they can give a yellow card.
‘It is unhygienic and a good way to spread the virus. This is one of the reasons why we have to be very careful before we start again. I am not pessimistic but I am rather sceptical at the moment.’
Apart from the spitting problem, Dr Ian Brierley has also pointed out other areas of concerns which need to be tackled.
Virologist at the University of Cambridge, Dr Ian Brierley, said, as quoted by Daily Mail: ‘If the person is infected but asymptomatic, or infected and symptomatic, the virus is present in the throat, and can be ejected into the environment by spitting.
‘Players may have to develop new celebrations so that they are not in close contact with each other. Pre-match handshakes, huddles at the start of a game and shirt swapping at the end of the match would also send out a poor message.’
Will footballers oblige to these rules?
Just a couple of days ago, Novak Djokovic had raised a storm by saying he will not be willing to take a vaccine as and when it’s available to the general public.
So good luck to trying and convince footballers they should not be spitting during matches.
Spitting saliva as well as water has been considered a normal routine in football matches for decades now so it will be really hard to persuade the players to change their habit overnight. Hence while Michel D’Hooghe might feel showing a yellow card will solve all the problem but we strongly disagree with it.
The first thing FIFA needs to do is set up a proper guideline of things that need to be avoided during matches in order to promote better hygiene and then they should approach the various regional associations for their inputs.
