How many Premier League footballers are vaccinated? What we know about Covid jab uptake as outbreaks hit clubs
At the time of writing there are 23 postponed matches across English football’s top four divisions on Saturday. That figure could be out of date by the time you get around to reading this, such is the nature of the current situation.
As a result, Match of the Day will be a little light on Saturday, with just Aston Villa’s match with Burnley and Arsenal’s trip to Leeds scheduled to take place, with three more games on Sunday.
There are a handful of postponements in the Championship and League One too, while just four League Two fixtures are set to go ahead at Saturday 3pm.
This spate of Ps on the fixture list comes in a week of record-high cases in the UK, but also after the English Football League (EFL) released data on the number of players vaccinated.
November numbers show 59 per cent of players across the EFL are fully vaccinated, while 16 per cent have either had a single jab or intend to be vaccinated. The greater concern will be that 25 per cent of players currently have no intention of getting the vaccine.
The Premier League, meanwhile, last released figures on 19 October, when it revealed 68 per cent of players had been double jabbed. The league said rates would be communicated “at appropriate intervals in the future”. It is two months since those figures, and i understands an update is expected next week.
Unless the Premier League can show there has been a significant increase, both they and the EFL fall behind the current rate in the UK, where 89 per cent of people aged 12 and over have had their first vaccine, 82 per cent their second, and 44 per cent their booster.
It would be easy therefore to point the finger and highlight the correlation between the slow uptake in vaccinations and the number of footballing postponements.
However, this is a wider issue. Football may be under the spotlight, but it is merely a microcosm. Stats in England as of 16 December show 63 per cent of men aged 18-24 have been double jabbed, and that rises to 67 per cent for 25-29, up again to 75.2 per cent for 30-34 and then 79.9 per cent for 35-39.
Your typical football squad fits almost entirely in these four brackets, and suddenly the Premier League’s and EFL’s figures do not seem so surprising.
The question on how to improve these numbers has been put to several managers this week. Tottenham boss Antonio Conte said he would not “force” any player to get the vaccine, while his belief that it is a “personal decision” has been echoed by Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel, who said “getting the vaccine is still a free choice”.
Pep Guardiola is encouraging his Manchester City players to get the booster, while Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has been more forthright. In October he compared refusing the vaccine to drink-driving, and this week urged supporters to get their vaccine or boosters, stressing “ignore those who pretend to know” and telling people to listen to the experts.
Klopp’s programme notes vs Newcastle
“As I have spoken about before, we have a very high take-up of the vaccine at our club and have done for a long time. It might be 100 per cent now or as close as is possible, so that’s important.
“I have no issue telling you I received my booster jab as soon as I was eligible and again that will be the case for many if not nearly all within our ranks in the coming days and weeks.
“I won’t apologise for the view I hold on the vaccination, no matter how unpopular it might make me in certain sections of society. I’m the same privately as I am publicly on this.
“If I come across friends or people I care about in my life away from football and they tell me they haven’t had a jab yet, I do my best to encourage them to listen to experts. It’s never a case of ‘listen to me’ – it’s always ‘listen to those who know’.
“Ignore those who pretend to know. Ignore lies and misinformation. Listen to people who know best. If you do that, you end up wanting the vaccine and the booster.
“The ‘stick to football’ abuse so misses the point. Yes, I know about football having spent my entire life in the game. And my view on the vaccination isn’t from my own imagination. That’s the point – I listen to experts. People who are smarter than I ever could be have come to the rescue of society by creating this for the world.
“We are very blessed in this country and throughout Europe to have such incredible access to it. I see that as a privilege and one I will always be grateful for.
“We don’t know what impact the new variant will have on football in the short or medium term. It will certainly impact player availability as positive cases arise and might result in fixtures being postponed sporadically, but that is for the governing bodies to manage.”
Klopp has previously said around “99 per cent” of his players are vaccinated, and this drive to improve numbers across the English leagues will probably play a role in how busy the schedule looks in the coming weeks and months.
In Europe’s other major leagues, Ligue 1, Bundesliga, La Liga and Serie A all boast numbers over 90 per cent in terms of double-jabbed players, per various reports. Across those divisions this weekend, there is not a single postponement.
The Premier League, meanwhile, after a weekend where their fixture list has been halved, are planning talks on Monday to discuss the current crisis. A “circuit break” will be debated, but we can expect talks on vaccines to crop up too.
It could prove vital to ensure further postponements are avoided, but the answer is not clear-cut. Perhaps Klopp needs more support, or maybe it would take a high-profile player to boost the drive among footballers and young men across the country, but England manager Gareth Southgate has already alluded to why his stars may be reluctant to speak out – abuse.
Having supported the vaccination drive, Southgate said in October: "If you're receiving messages when you support the programme that say 'You could be up in front of a Nuremberg type trial in 10 years' and people are quite vicious with comments, it does make you think twice about speaking out.”
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