Unvaccinated players and the challenges facing sport: What is the legal position?

The issue of professional athletes and Covid-19 vaccines is continuing to generate debate across all facets of the sports industry, both domestically and internationally.

Much of football’s most recent international break was dominated by widespread reaction to comments made by Republic of Ireland and West Bromwich Albion player Callum Robinson. Robinson is not the first, and is unlikely to be the last, high-profile professional athlete to publicly state that he does not intend to get vaccinated, but he has become somewhat of a symbol of the growing concerns within professional football around the relatively low uptake compared to other sports.

In the international context, Novak Djokovic’s involvement in the Australian Open this coming January remains in doubt given his publicly stated opposition to vaccines and the restrictions in place in the state of Victoria. Meanwhile in the NBA, Kylie Irving is unable to feature in matches or training for the Brooklyn Nets given the regulations in place in New York.

Clearly the legal and governmental position will differ across jurisdictions, but from a UK and Ireland perspective: the approach to vaccines adopted by sporting clubs, bodies, leagues and organisations needs to be understood in the context of the raft of legal issues at play.

Jonny Madill and Ollie Raggett have put together this article aimed at breaking down the legal position in the UK and Ireland - with a focus on whether sporting clubs and bodies can make being vaccinated a pre-condition of athletes competing, and the wider issues at play.

Read the full article here.