Footballers must not hug or high-five in celebration, yet two groups of sweaty men can link arms, lock shoulders and form a scrum ?
More ridiculous inconsistencies from the government!
When proper grassroots football resumed at the beginning of last August - I am referring to County Leagues and below - there were plenty of special measures imposed by the FA such as no goal celebrations, regular ball sanitisation, spectators not to retrieve the ball from behind the holly thicket, so on. All eminently reasonable, given the circumstances. In my experience as a groundhopper (football equivalent of an anorak
), though, there has been a gradual drift back towards life as it was, especially the ignoring by spectators of social distancing guidelines.
With regard to grassroots rugby union, there were plans to gradually reintroduce the sport from September, with certain modifications like no scrums and a reduced number of players on a team (rugby league, anyone?
) but the reoccurring Covid outbreaks effectively put paid to that and the current season, certainly in my regional area, has now been cancelled.
Elite football and elite rugby union are another planet entirely.