The world of sport is a huge focus of media attraction and the athletes’ performances, their environment and the entire sports institutional framework not only affect the protagonists, but also function as benchmark for society in general. Sport, today, is a showcase of the first order. On the positive side, it radiates a series of useful values for coexistence. On the negative side, however, it also generates totally reprehensible attitudes. This is the case of the soap opera starring Novak Djokovic as a result of his stubbornness in playing the Australian Open, being aware that the country is prohibited from entering anyone who does not prove to have the complete vaccination schedule. His vaccine-resistant attitude and the lies you have presented as evidence to be able to play the tournament they have generated the rejection of the Australian Government, willing to “protect citizens after the sacrifices they have made” and, in the words of Prime Minister Hawke, because “it would provoke anti-vaccine sentiment.” This unfortunate story, which has also led to a diplomatic conflict with Serbia, the truth is that it has once again put on the table the social responsibility that concerns athletes, in certainly difficult moments in which the evidence of the necessity (and goodness) of vaccination, against unfounded denialist opinions. This is what the Brazilian football coach, Tite, for example, has emphasized when announcing that Renan Lodi, an Atlético de Madrid player, would not be summoned by the ‘canarinha’ because he did not have the complete schedule.
This case has uncovered a grotesque and inadmissible situation, since Lodi (and, according to Louis Rubiales, president of the Spanish Football Federation, other footballers) has played the Spain Supercup, which is held in Saudi Arabia, without meeting the health requirements demanded by the country’s authorities. To justify this anomaly, defended and promoted by the RFEF itself, Rubiales has argued that “sport generates exceptions.” And that, in the event that complete vaccination had been required – not compulsory in the League and in other FIFA competitions, although a rigid testing regime and recommendations apparently laxly followed in the daily life of athletes -, «we They would have criticized the lack of 8 or 10 players. He has gone so far as to ensure that, had Saudi Arabia not lifted its own restrictions, “it would have been said to be a 12th-century regime.” Criticism had already intensified over the agreement to play the Super Cup (at least until 2029) in a State with continuous violations of human rights, but this tone shows a no empathy with the current health situation and with the need to set an example to a citizenry that lives immersed in the anguish of this sixth wave and a total complacency with the Saudi strategy of whitewashing his regime with gestures such as the well-paid displacement of the Spanish Super Cup.
Sport cannot be perceived as “an exception”. And speaking of a regulation that in this case (as in Australia) is in favor of community protection as if it were a medieval norm does a disservice to all institutional campaigns in favor of vaccination. Sport cannot defend that it is “outside” politics when, in this case, it is the field in which it has decided to play. And in no case suggest that it is due to the current health restrictions.
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