Dear footballers, stop going to Dubai

Dear everyone, just stop going to Dubai.

Maybe it’s because I’m old and boring but the idea of the United Arab Emirates, in general, just doesn’t appeal to me. Maybe it’s the human rights violations or criminalisation of homosexuality, who knows, let’s just say, I’m not chomping at the bit to go. But I seem to be in the minority.

Britons have been flocking to the Emirate in their droves over the last few weeks. Pandemic? Who gives a crap?

2020 was… well, it was a hard year for everyone. Everyone found themselves affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and it’s understandable that every single person would feel like they needed a holiday. Which would be fine if the virus was under control and not claiming more and more lives with each passing day.

When the last round of WSL and Championship testing was conducted and the results released before the winter break, women’s football fans were left to balk at the numbers that had skyrocketed. With 48 total positives returned from the period from the first week of the July through to the start of December, 32 positives in one round of testing was harrowing. Outbreaks were on the rise and the south of England was heading into Tier 4 as female footballers were heading off to the East.

Under the guise of visiting Dubai on business, players justified the trips to their clubs, either before they went or after they had been caught.

Whilst it’s true that footballers can’t work from home like so many others have been implored to, jumping on a plane to fly three and a half thousand miles around the globe in the name of business seems… unlikely, shall we say.

So disappointed. pic.twitter.com/AjfOU6onnM

— Ellie (@elliesaysthings) January 4, 2021

But we already know this, their indiscretions have been written about. From Katie McCabe and Alisha Lehmann last year to the unnamed players at Arsenal and Manchester City who’ve tested positive on their return.

Through the pandemic, football has persevered in England – albeit not as usual, and not at every level, but for those who are classed as “elite”, they have continued to play. For those across the top tier of women’s football who are full time, football; their passion and their job has continued.

It wasn’t so very long ago that women’s football wouldn’t have been classed as elite, and such a pandemic would have caused a complete shutdown of the women’s pyramid.

In the past, it’s been easy to laud women who play and have played the game, their value almost weighed in their sacrifices. The old guard who juggled multiple jobs along with their part-time playing, who’d traverse the length of the country just to train and play.

Yes, the overwhelming majority of players still pursue degrees and further education to ensure they have a career oven-ready for the day they hang their boots up. But the top of the game has lost some of its grit with the growth – which isn’t to say that any footballer just phones it in. The women’s game aping the men’s game more and more with each passing day, the Christmas calamity the clearest way to see the parallel paths.

Arsenal manager Joe Montemurro says the team will follow government guidance which means they will be unable to travel home for Christmas. Says they discussed it before the game as players understandably anxious/disappointed

— Molly Hudson (@M0lly_Writes) December 20, 2020

Jetting off to Dubai whilst the country of your residence is grappling with a mounting death toll and struggling to contain a mutation of the virus isn’t particularly clever. But, and this is the part that hammers home the collective lack of intelligence of those who’d do such, plastering your trip over social media… to quote Blackadder, “Your brain for example; is so minute, Baldrick, that if a hungry cannibal cracked your head open, there wouldn’t be enough to cover a small water biscuit.”

Of course, not all those who nipped off for some sun… er, “business” were stupid enough to share their hol… business snaps in public but the damage has been done. Not just staining the league and [because that’s how it works], all of women’s football but of causing ructions at their clubs.

Whilst some were nipping off for a quick bit of business, their teammates and fellow professionals across the league, stayed in club accommodation, up to thousands of miles away from their friends and family. It’s unlikely, Arsenal’s Australian contingent were overly thrilled with their teammate’s winter business.

As for the bubble that the WSL tried to create to keep its players safe; it’s equally as unlikely that those with immunocompromised and higher risk family members in their homes are happy at the trips their teammates have taken in recent weeks.

The behaviour on show irresponsible and reckless. Regardless of prior club clearance (as in the case of the Man City quartet), the conduct was, at best, morally ambiguous, so I guess it’s only fitting that Dubai was the destination.