Everton FC moves the goalposts for fans over Covid19 restrictions

By Niall McCrae

A message by Everton Football Club has caused much concern. All of the restricted number of season ticketholders allowed to attend the match on 28th December against Manchester City needed to complete a health questionnaire and pass a Covid-19 test within 36 hours of going through the turnstiles. Ironically the match was postponed due to positive Covid cases in the visiting team. 

Fears that a vaccine passport will be required for public events cannot be dismissed: this medical tyranny is happening now. Unless as a society we stand up for our rights, this Everton tweet will become the norm: – 

‘Coming to Goodison for #EVEMCI tomorrow? Remember to follow our #GamePlan and get a negative COVID-19 test no more than 36 hours before the match. Click the link to find out which testing centres are open.’

It seems that the authorities are using Liverpool as a testing ground for the ‘New Normal’ emerging from the coronavirus pandemic. The mass testing programme in the autumn, with army trucks on the streets, was portrayed by the Labour mayor as a demonstration of how Liverpudlians care for each other. Perhaps Everton, with its working-class dockside roots and self-described as the ‘People’s Club’, was chosen   because if feisty Scousers can be persuaded to follow radical changes to their lives, anyone can.  

But this was a step too far. The outrage on Twitter was palpable. Many simply replied ‘Boycott’. Others expressed their horror at this dystopian turn: –

‘We are not livestock to be tested and tagged. Don’t stand for it.’ (Indrid Coldert)

‘These clubs are COLLABORATORS. Do not contribute to the new norm because this will become permanent.’ (Nordic Mike) 

Testing healthy people for a disease of low risk to themselves just to spend two hours sitting in the open air is not justifiable. Medical interventions should be targeted at those who are vulnerable or ill. Furthermore, as a tweet by David N argued, ‘one of the most likely places to catch Covid-19 is at a testing centre’. 

Test results based on a dubious procedure with a high false positive rate could unfairly bar supporters, but a negative result is no guarantee against germs, as tweeted by Father John Hackett: – 

You can’t catch this highly infectious virus for 36 hours after a test. That’s a new one anyone told SAGE?’

A chap named Chris tweeted ‘make sure they get a HIV test too’. Well, why not?   Simon Dolan, who unsuccessfully sought a judicial review against the government’s emergency legislation, wrote: – ‘You can of course attend if you have Ebola, Dengue fever, typhoid, tuberculosis, Marburg hemorrhagic fever, or indeed all of these.’ 

Over ninety-nine per cent of the hundreds of replies were against the club. Indeed, the only exception was a supporter who had completed the questionnaire but wanted to know why none was provided for his son. It seems that this lad was tested for nothing.  

Everton supporter Invictus saw this latest move in the broader context of ideological imposition: –

‘That’s me out. 50+yrs a blue supporter, but done with football between this and the knee.’

Invictus was referring to the Black Lives Matter campaign and the tiresome ritual of ‘taking the knee’ by players before kick-off. This racial divisiveness is an insult to supporters, many of them whom can barely afford the tickets. Traditional fans have become disillusioned with clubs they have supported throughout their lives treating them like naughty schoolchildren.  Every stadium is adorned with prominent signs hectoring about woke causes and urging people to report ‘hate’. 

Meanwhile VAR is ruining the raw excitement of the game, with muted goal celebrations while the scorer is checked for offside.  The hashtag #FuckFootball has been trending.  

For millions of men (and many women too) the habit of a lifetime is fading into nostalgia. Lifelong supporters may never return. Do the premier clubs care? There is much more profit from live televised matches than from ground receipts, and an empty stadium needs no stewards and policing. The World Economic Forum, architect of the ‘Great Reset’, plans a technologically controlled society in which human beings are kept apart. No more crowded pubs, gigs or football stands. 

Fans should speak out now. The only way to get back to a full ground with all the noise and atmosphere is to refuse to comply with Covid passports. This is a battle for the future of football that must be won. The arguments should not be merely sentimental. Forcing healthy citizens to be tested or vaccinated as a condition for normal activities would breach the Nuremberg Code. Scousers, please be more feisty.