Should footballers receive “fast-track” access to Covid vaccines? Burnley’s manager, Sean Dyche, thinks so. “The cash it generates through tax, the wellbeing of what the players do... there’s a lot of good going through football.”
The money spent on testing Premier League players could be given instead to the NHS. “The payback to the system… would be considerable.” It’s a seductive argument: “If footballers were to queue-jump, we’d be doing Britain a favour and helping the health service.”
It’s no different, though, from Britain’s richest man, James Dyson, or the Duke of Westminster, the world’s wealthiest man under 30, saying: “We’re rich enough to bung a few million to the NHS in exchange for getting vaccinated first.” We should no more accept it from rich footballers than from rich businessmen or landowners.
The rich usually elbow themselves to the front of every queue, whether for health or education, travel or tax cuts. And they often find specious justifications: “Tax cuts for the rich keeps wealth in this country.” “Private healthcare takes the pressure off the NHS.” But the fact that the world is often like this does not mean that it is right, nor that we should validate it. Certainly, football brings joy to millions, especially at a bleak time such as this. Sport is more than an indulgent pastime and can be a source of identity and collective hope. Football, as Liverpool’s manager, Jurgen Klopp, once remarked, may be “the most important of the least important things”.
I look forward to the day when football returns to normal. But not so much that I want to further privilege an already pampered group of people. Footballers can take their place in the queue.
• Kenan Malik is an Observer columnist
