All training sessions recorded.
Imagine a world where your every move is filmed and sent to the authorities for inspection, your temperature is checked every day, you require ID to be allowed access to your workplace and you can’t talk to fellow employees in groups.
This is lockdown life at Premier League training grounds in 2020… and it involves more hand sanitiser gel than you ever thought imaginable.
Each club must adhere to strict rules and regulations to give themselves every possible chance of keeping their training grounds coronavirus-free. With players and staff all undergoing regular tests and items like footballs, goalposts and cones disinfected after every session in a military-style operation, training grounds are arguably some of the safest places in the country. Personal hygiene needs to be meticulous and work surfaces must be pristine.
The Athletic has seen a 40-page policy document which lists in detail what clubs can and can’t do. Rules range from the closure of changing rooms and showers to the prohibition of spitting (a few footballers might struggle with that one).
One of the most important aspects is coronavirus testing, which takes place twice a week. The process takes around five minutes — players and staff drive into a pop-up testing station, have their ID checked and then have a swab inserted, first towards the back of the mouth and then in the lower nasal passage. This is said to be the least invasive of the COVID-19 swab tests and does not compare to the uncomfortable deep nasal swabs that some may have seen in videos.
At Wolverhampton Wanderers, each player also fills in a brief questionnaire on an app before they arrive at the training ground. The questions are basic (i.e. “Have you or anyone in your family developed symptoms?”) and, once they have been completed, every player has his temperature checked by a security guard.
At all clubs, players must drive to their designated car parking spot, with spaces kept far apart. They must arrive in their training kit with their own football and towel.
Indoor areas are allowed to be open but just for basic requirements like going to the toilet. As well as the showers and changing rooms being closed, clubs can’t use ice baths, cryotherapy chambers or the canteen.
They are encouraged to implement one-way systems, the kind seen in many supermarkets, to navigate through buildings. At Wolves, for example, players walk into the academy building where, on the indoor pitch, each player has an individual station complete with a crate of drinks and hand sanitiser. They then walk in single file, via the one-way system, out towards the training pitch, via a medical desk where they check in and report any issues, or highlight any strappings they have which may need changing.
The Premier League has stipulated that all training sessions be filmed and sent to them upon request, as well as GPS data and performance data.
For the past week, training has been conducted in small groups of no more than five and is overseen by three staff members apiece. One Premier League club’s groups have been spread out over two pitches, including one goalkeeper-only group. Drills have included…
- Passing in small circles, with one player in the middle taking the ball, spinning and passing back to a team-mate
- Shooting practice, dribbling the ball from the halfway line, past a couple of mannequins and into a small goal
- Running or sprinting while holding a medicine ball above their head, or heading and jumping while wearing restrictive bands around their legs
- Reaction drills, with a coach shouting “jump” and the player instead having to sprint, or the coach shouting “left” and the player having to dart to the right
Gloves and masks can be worn but are optional, not mandatory.
From tomorrow, training can progress to full group sessions — when players will be able to “engage in tackling while minimising any unnecessary close contact” — after a unanimous vote was passed by Premier League clubs.
At the end of the session, players must head straight to their cars where, as one Premier League staff member put it, the scene resembles a car park next to a Sunday league pitch, with players sat with the door open swapping their boots for trainers and throwing all their gear into their car boots.
Food and drink can be picked up from a designated area. Wolves have been leaving individualised food packages by each player’s car, such as the usual post-session essentials like protein bars.
Meanwhile, equipment and GPS units are left in allocated areas. Everything must be disinfected by staff, including corner flags, goalposts, cones, gloves and boots.
Simple things like laundry or any disposable waste must all be carefully managed. One club asks players to put their dirty laundry from the previous day’s session into a big pile on arrival. They then pick up their next day’s kit on the way out. Another club asks that tissues are placed in a plastic bag. When that bag is full, it must be placed inside a second bin bag and tied… and then
that bag needs to be left in a secure place and marked for storage until 72 hours have passed.
Players at all clubs have been sent guidelines and advice on how to adhere to the rules. To simplify matters, Wolves produced a three-minute video, sent to each player on WhatsApp, which takes a journey from the entrance to the training ground, following where exactly they are allowed to go and what they have to do each day. Everyone at the club has also been sent an aerial map showing where they can and can’t go. Only people who have been tested are allowed in certain areas while the non-tested staff (such as media personnel and photographers) have red hatched-off no-go areas.
On top of all that, clubs have basic hygiene regulations, including the 20-second hand-washing rule, sneezing/coughing into their sleeve and avoiding touching their face.
And to check everyone is abiding by the rules, the Premier League has started sending staff to inspect training grounds and observe sessions.
(Photo: Wolverhampton Wanderers FC/Getty Images)