Nearly three-quarters of the total number of players from the two largest Portuguese football leagues have been vaccinated against Covid-19. According to the Portuguese Professional Football League, which in July developed a vaccination scheme to be applied to 34 sports associations, in line with the Directorate General of Health, 73.7% of footballers in the League and League 2 have already been vaccinated.
The first to receive player protection were the clubs registered in UEFA competitions and those who refused to take the vaccine still had to undergo a negative PCR test before each match. After ten rounds in the two tiers, the league only had to postpone the match between Academia and Estrella, from the fourth round of La Liga 2, due to a series of injury cases at Amadora.
Vaccination was normalized as an advice rather than an obligation in sport after the Olympic Games, which were held in Tokyo – from July 23 to August 8, one year later than due specifically due to the pandemic – as recommended by the International Olympic Committee after signing a memorandum of understanding with Pfizer Laboratories and BioNTech to provide vaccines to athletes and members of participating delegations.
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