neal ardleys message to authorities re covid testing

[liampie]

Notts County boss Neal Ardley wants Covid-19 tests for footballers to be made mandatory, insisting players’ health must be a priority.

The Magpies, who have tested their players on a regular basis since the start of the season, have pulled out of the FA Cup after six members of their squad contracted the virus.

Ardley believes the outbreak in his squad was triggered by an opposing team. He insists players across the country will take to the field this weekend Covid-19 positive without knowing, putting themselves, their teammates and opponents at risk.

https://www.nottinghampost.com/sport/football/football-news/neal-ardley-notts-county-covid-4635350

[DangerousSausage]

It would certainly be the best thing to do, but the question is who pays for it. We're lucky enough to have wealthy owners, but other clubs have to be more careful with their cash. Really the league should be paying for it.

As the season goes on, there are going to be such a lot of players in quarantine that the league ill be a complete lottery. Having a good squad is no use if they're all isolating at home with their PlayStations, and that'll make it even harder to go back up.Why couldn't we have had our disaster season one year later? We could have won three games and stayed up like Stevenage.

[Chris]

For me there's a difference between fielding a team knowing that player(s) have COVID-19, or a test failing to prove that player(s) have it.

If any teams proceeds to play a match knowing, they should remove the players from selection but obviously this doesn't fully prevent the spread of it - as others within the same squad could have it but without symptoms. I do feel that fines or at least docked points should occur and, if the fault is with the testing then the people doing them need to be reviewed. It's just one of those things mind, at some point most teams will be hit and it's about how you manage it.

Hopefully, Notts has been quick to isolate the spread further.

[CliftonMagpie]

If it's not done right, then the system in place is failing and this puts the sport in danger. The National League needs to look into the data to understand how these outbreaks are happening and if there's more that can be done by the clubs.

[allardyces tash]

The National League can barely run itself, let alone manage the teams handle the tests as professional as possible.

[Joshua]

It's good to know the squad has recovered from it but I do feel that there's a failure in the testing if Notts can prove the players caught it from playing against team(s) with it.