sport news DANNY MURPHY: Players who flout Covid rules should get fines AND bans

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I have a vested interest in keeping football going, I love the game like millions of others and work in the industry as well. I understand it brings a feel-good factor in difficult times.

But we can’t allow football to be divorced from the reality of what is happening in the rest of the world. If we want matches to continue, and ideally we do, players have to adhere to rules and guidelines otherwise the moral argument to carry on becomes impossible to make.

I know how young footballers think, I was one once, and wealth and fame can give you an ego where you think normal rules don’t apply. It’s not malicious but it’s the reality and you need a proper deterrent to stop.

If players think there are no consequences to their actions apart from having to conjure up an apology with the help of a PR specialist, there is no reason for them to change their behaviour.

It’s why I think the Premier League have to act now and come up with a disciplinary procedure that anyone in the game who flouts lockdown rules receives a three-match ban and gets fined two weeks’ wages.

It should have happened already but should certainly be introduced now with cases on the rise, quite alarmingly in some areas of the country. The reality is if we do nothing and some players think they are above the guidelines, the entire fixture list will come to a grinding halt.

Footballers have even more of an obligation to follow the rules and I am sure clubs are making their obligations crystal clear. Even in my day, they would hammer home messages

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