Football should call a break – if only for the sake of sporting fairness

Tony Evans’s excellent article on Jurgen Klopp summarises neatly the key issues at play. On the one hand, dangerous misinformation is being peddled, and on the other it’s being upheld by the authorities through their refusal to front up to the situation in front of them.

In a few days, the fixture schedule has been shredded. Fans have travelled only to be met with late cancellations and many of the remaining matches have been played with key players absent.

The refusal to call a break, even just for the sake of sporting fairness, suggests to those looking for warped justification of their misinformation beliefs that “there is no problem”. 

Yet matches can easily become super-spreader events without appropriate controls, and if the Covid virus continues its rampant spread this winter we could well see sports events subject to blanket cancellations or at a minimum being played behind closed doors. Do the football authorities understand this? It’s already happening elsewhere, and, of course, it happened here before. It would cost the game a lot more money in the long term.

It’s time for more people to show leadership like Klopp.

Charles Wood

Birmingham

While Emily Roberts reluctantly took her husband’s surname, I kept my own name after marriage and also the title of Miss (can’t stand Ms). In contrast to the possible annoyance of someone calling me by my husband’s surname, there can be upsides – such as when he is called by my name and also when cold callers on the phone call me by his name I can say “who?” and coolly hang up. Perversely, I quite enjoy people’s confusion!

Gillian Main

East Sussex

Daisy Cooper seems to be going down the route of Jo Swinson. It was the LibDem’s hubris that gave Boris Johnson his 80-seat majority and inflicted Brexit on us, and unless they make common cause with other opposition parties, they will do the same next time.

The LibDems cannot “win”, in the sense of forming a government. But they might be part of a successful “get the Tories out” coalition. Instead of dismissing an alliance out of hand, why not consider the price they would demand from one? Abolition of first past the post would be high on my list.

Rachael Padman

Suffolk

Instead of wasting TV air time on Chris Witty telling people what to do, which isn’t working well enough, let’s try showing the real-time stories of unvaccinated patients in hospital fighting for their lives – while telling everyone to get vaccinated. Pictures often speak louder than words.

Colin Jane

Address supplied

I thank The Independent for raising awareness about the surging menace of antimicrobial resistance. This is the greatest silent pandemic and public health tsunami facing our world today without exaggeration. All antibiotics, antifungal, antiviral, antiparasitics might become one day ineffectual and useless in treating the simplest surgical procedures from tooth extraction to other infectious diseases such as: malaria, tuberculosis, diphtheria, whooping cough, HIV, ebola, corona, etc. Moreover, such a pandemic is a cross-boundary threat and hence the solution should be more international, holistic and environmentally friendly.

Dr Munjed Farid Al Qutob

London