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Former UPL director Thomas Grimm was in the same hotel in Lucerne where the Ukrainian team was staying before the canceled game with Switzerland and witnessed the Ukrainian team being quarantined. The 61-year-old official told the Swiss newspaper Blick his version of what happened.
“The first information came from UEFA around 11:15. The Ukrainians couldn’t believe it, they were shocked. The options for summoning players from youth teams were immediately studied. And around 1:00 p.m. a document in German from the Swiss association was adopted, which was called “The order of measures in relation to the players and staff of the national team of Ukraine.”
When the bad news came, he was sitting next to the secretary general of the Ukrainian association. In the document, the quarantine measures were justified by the need to “prevent the uncontrolled spread of the virus from the Ukrainian team to other people, in particular to the players and staff of the Swiss team, as well as to the general population.” I cannot accept this excuse, especially the reference to the general population. The UEFA protocol is structured in such a way that there is no contact with the population. Furthermore, this justification is based on the assumption that members of the Ukrainian delegation, whose tests were negative, may also be infected.
Did the Ukrainians follow all protective measures? I can’t say, I didn’t go with your delegation. But I can say that everyone in the hotel was wearing masks. I must say that this document, in my opinion, should have been personally delivered by someone from the Swiss side, but this did not happen until I left the hotel.
I don’t understand the decision to quarantine the Ukrainian team. As for me, it was disproportionate. Switzerland has a moderate virus situation, in many cantons, including Lucerne, you can go to restaurants. The theoretical risk of infection of the Ukrainian delegation was only among soccer players, but not among the population. You may wonder: where is the risk of contagion greater: in a restaurant with more than 100 customers without tests, or in a soccer game where 22 players have a negative test 24 hours before the game?
Canton Doctor … It was possible to postpone the game until Wednesday and put the entire Ukrainian team to the test again. If there were 13 players with negative tests, the match could be played.
Perhaps the game can be rescheduled for next year. For example, playing it instead of one of the friendly matches during the preparation for Euro 2020. It was fair to decide everything on a sports basis. A technical loss for one of the teams or a draw are not desirable options, ”Grimm said.
