MELBOURNE: Australia’s Victoria state has included professional athletes in a vaccination mandate that will require about 1.25 million “authorized workers” to have two COVID-19 shots by the end of November.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews announced the health order on Friday as the southern state grapples with an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.
The categories of authorized workers released by the Victoria government include “professional or high-performance sportsperson, workers that support the safe running of that person’s professional sport” and broadcasters.
Authorized workers must have their first vaccine shot by Oct. 15 and their second by Nov. 26 or face being banned from their workplaces.
“Ultimately, if you want to come to work and you’re on the authorized list, you need to have your first jab by (Oct. 15),” Andrews told reporters as Victoria announced 1,143 new local COVID-19 cases on Friday.
Victoria is Australia’s first state to introduce such a sweeping vaccine mandate, though vaccination was made compulsory for workers in aged care last month across the country.
Victoria is home to dozens of professional teams in soccer, cricket, Australian Rules football and rugby, and is also a base for high performance hubs in tennis, golf, athletics and other sports.
It was unclear whether the mandate would extend to athletes visiting from other states or overseas.
England’s cricket team is to tour Melbourne for the Boxing Day test on Dec. 26 during the Ashes, while the Australian Open tennis Grand Slam at Melbourne Park draws hundreds of international players.
Andrews said he would be surprised if England’s Ashes squad would be allowed to enter the country unless all their players and staff were fully vaccinated. The first test starts in Brisbane on Dec. 8.
“I don’t issue passports or visas ... but I think it is highly unlikely that the Commonwealth government will be letting anybody into this country that has not been double-vaxxed, certainly in the medium term,” he said.
“That might change over time.”
England’s cricket board (ECB) said they expect their traveling party for the Ashes to be fully vaccinated.
“Selection will be confirmed in due course,” a spokesman told Reuters.
Governing body Cricket Australia (CA) said every nationally contracted cricketer, male and female, were already fully vaccinated and 98 percent of domestic professionals had received one shot.
“Virtually every single professional player will be fully vaccinated by the end of this month,” CA said in a statement.
The Australian Football League, the governing body for the top flight of Australian Rules football, said it was waiting for “formal government directions” on the next steps.
Ahead of Ashes clash with England, Australian state makes COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for athletes
https://arab.news/5wkcv
Ahead of Ashes clash with England, Australian state makes COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for athletes
- Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews announced the health order on Friday
- Categories of authorised workers include "professional or high-performance sportsperson, workers that support the safe running of that person’s professional sport" and broadcasters
Morocco banish any doubts about ability to host World Cup 2030
- Impressive stadiums, easy transportation links and a well-established tourism infrastructure ensured the 24-team tournament went off without any major hitch and will assuage any doubters about the World Cup in four years’ time
RABAT: Morocco’s successful staging of the Africa Cup of Nations means there should be no skepticism about its ability to co-host the World Cup with Portugal and Spain in 2030, even if Sunday’s final was clouded by a walk-off and defeat for the home team.
Impressive stadiums, easy transportation links and a well-established tourism infrastructure ensured the
24-team tournament went off without any major hitch and will assuage any doubters about the World Cup in four years’ time.
Morocco plans to use six venues in 2030 and five of them were used for the Cup of Nations, providing world-class playing surfaces and a spectacular backdrop.
The Grande Stade in Tangier with a 75,000 capacity is an impressive facility in the northern coastal city, less than an hour’s ferry ride from Spain.
Meanwhile, FIFA President Gianni Infantino condemned "some Senegal players" for the "unacceptable scenes" which overshadowed their victory in the final when they left the pitch in protest at a penalty awarded to Morocco.
African football's showpiece event was marred by most of the Senegal team walking off when, deep into injury time of normal play and with the match locked at 0-0, Morocco were awarded a spot-kick following a VAR check by referee Jean-Jacques Ndala for a challenge on Brahim Diaz.
security personnel at the other end of the stadium, Senegal's players eventually returned to the pitch to see Diaz shoot a soft penalty into the arms of their goalkeeper Edouard Mendy.
The match was played at the Stade Moulay Abdellah in the capital Rabat, which has a capacity of 69,500. The attendance for the final was 66,526.
Stadiums in Agadir, Fes and Marrakech were also more than adequate and will now be renovated over the next few years.
But the crowning glory is the proposed 115,000-capacity Stade Hassan II on the outskirts of Casablanca which Morocco hope will be chosen to host the final over Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
In all, Morocco will spend $1.4 billion on the six stadiums. Also planned is extensive investment in airports, with some 10 Moroccan cities already running direct air links to Europe and many budget airlines offering flights to the country.
An extension of Africa’s only high-speed rail service, which already provides a comfortable three-hour ride from Tangier to Casablanca, further south to Agadir and Marrakech is also planned. Morocco hopes all of this will modernize its cities and boost the economy.
On the field, Morocco will hope to launch a credible challenge for a first African World Cup success, although on Sunday they continued their poor return in the Cup of Nations, where their only triumph came 50 years ago.
They surprised with a thrilling run to the last four at the Qatar 2022 World Cup as the first African nation to get that far and will hope for a similar impact at this year’s finals in North America. They are in Group C with Brazil, Scotland and Haiti.
