Premier League stars told ‘f***ing play to get paid’, as Valencia’s Gabriel Paulista indicates he won’t play without Covid-19 vaccine
Pressure builds on Premier League players: ‘F***ing play to get paid’
A team of reporters from The Athletic have pool resources to reveal how Premier League footballers are being pressured into returning to work during the Covid-19 crisis.
No players are outed by name. And that’s understandable considering the sensitive topics at hand.
Representatives from the 20 Premier League clubs are due to meet on Friday to discuss the viability of restarting the 2019-20 season, a plan known as ‘Project Restart’.
However, what’s made apparent by The Athletic is that many footballers have legitimate concerns about going back to their day job. Readers are told:
Although many players are said to be “raring to go”, several top-flight players have registered concerns over the possibility of quarantining away from family for several months, particularly in the case of players whose wives are pregnant or who have elderly and vulnerable relatives that require their support.
▪️ Some stars say return of football ‘dangerous’ & ‘crossing a line’
▪️ Doctors at odds over what advice to give squads
▪️ Insiders: it will ‘take a death’ to make game realise return is wrong📝 @AdamCrafton_, @stujames75, @lauriewhitwell, @domfifield & @David_Ornstein
— The Athletic UK (@TheAthleticUK) April 30, 2020
The most eye-catching part of The Athletic’s report – titled “Investigation: Players scared and angry over plans for the return of football” – was a short quote from an unnamed agent:
Interestingly, many players are keen to restart as they have either deferred or agreed wage cuts during the period of isolation. Other players are desperate to return as their contracts are heavily incentivised.
In some cases, a contract often reported to be worth £60,000-per-week, could in fact be worth less than £40,000-per-week without relevant appearance and loyalty bonuses that can be included in deals. “If you want your money, fucking play,” one agent concludes.
Valencia’s Gabriel Paulista indicates he won’t play without Covid-19 vaccine
Former Arsenal defender, Gabriel Paulista, who is now at Valencia, has used Instagram to express his concerns about returning to play football.
On Wednesday night, Gabriel Paulista argued that players need 100% guarantees that there’s no risk of contracting Covid-19 before they go back to work.
Ostensibly, that means Gabriel Paulista is willing to shelve his football career until there’s a vaccine. He wrote:
Professional footballers are privileged people, but we are people first of all. We have family, loved ones and feelings.
We are always asked to be an example, and that is how it should be. Many children and young people pay attention to us.
We need to set an example to society that we value life and health above all.
For me, and I’m sure that for the vast majority of football players, money is not everything.
We cannot prioritize stress or financial pressures above the most fundamental issues; that any family member, friend, co-worker or profession can get sick or die.
In fact, after the terrible moment that we are still going through, no one should catch or die from this disease ever again!
I love football, I love to play, I love my club and I always want to make fans happy. But also, and above all, I love and respect the life of every human being.
We will play when no one does it out of fear and when we have complete guarantees that there are no risks.
If we are not given absolute guarantees, we must learn from the examples of other countries that have adopted more forceful measures.
Life first, then football!
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