As you all know COVID-19 has played a big part in our lives over the past 7 months and we all wondered if any football would take place at all this season. Now football is back up and running and we’re all allowed supporters, it’s paramount that the safety of supporters home and away is priority! Everyone attending needs to be 100% confident that all the necessary Covid precautions are adhered to in order to ensure their safety and that of the officials, players and staff of both clubs. At Retford United we do a club risk assessment as every club is required to do in order to keep everyone safe and prevent the spread of Covid-19. RUFC cannot afford to slip up and ultimately be banned from having supporters at all, by being careless, irresponsible and putting the club and fans views ahead of people’s safety. We are sure you support this approach.
With that in mind I’m going to answer why these games were cancelled by the league and not us. The league made the decision that the games should not be played due to the fact that on the run up to the Dinnington game we had 2 players that had to go into isolation as they had been in close contact with people that had tested positive for COVID 19 (one was a close family member and the other was a work colleague) both these players were tested and thankfully both results came back negative but as per the rules they still had to isolate and be retested. Then during our game at Dinnington, Katongo collapsed to the floor and after he came round he was struggling with his breathing and it did not look good at all, an ambulance was called but we were told it would be 3 hours so he was taken to A&E at Sheffield. He is now at home but still not good and has to be tested for COVID-19. Thankfully this came back negative as well, although more tests are being carried out to see what’s caused him to collapse. He was fine before the game and before he went onto the pitch. Retford United wish him a very speedy recovery.
Then on Friday we had another of our players who had to isolate as well due to his work colleague testing positive for Covid-19. This left us with four players in isolation so as a club we informed the league whom made the decision to cancel our games with Clay Cross & Renishaw. This is protocol for the league to do and the club was put into isolation with no training and no match day football. We therefore hope this answers everything particularly for those who oppose the decision. The league cancelled our fixtures not Retford United in order to keep everyone safe during these unprecedented times where we are in a worldwide pandemic with people dying often because of ignorance and a lack of discipline in following rules.
Thanks Retford United.
“Up the Badgers”