Seven Members of Kosovan Football Team Tested Positive for Covid-19 in Gibraltar

AS the Gibraltar Football Association is a member of UEFA, teams from the Rock are able to take part in various European competitions and the first match was due to take place last night (August 18) at Victoria Stadium.

Facing each other were to be Lincoln Red Imps of Gibraltar and FC Prishtina from Kosovo but seven players from the visiting team tested positive for Covid-19 and the match was cancelled.

UEFA Protocols dictate that teams need to be tested and present a valid certificate with details of the negative outcomes for the travelling party three days before leaving their country of origin.

The team that arrived in Gibraltar in a chartered plane was tested at the airport and members were under strict instructions to isolate until the local tests were returned.

FC Prishtina trained as they had provided a negative test certificate from their country of origin but the training session took place under significant restrictions as they were collected from their hotel, bussed to the stadium and trained with the same procedure upon their return.

A Gibraltar Government statement made it clear that they did not interact with anyone at the stadium and were not allowed to use any facilities such as changing rooms although possible sources of contamination like the substitutes benches and goals were sanitised directly after.

The entire squad were told to remain in the hotel until they were transported to the airport to catch their flight back to Kosovo having forfeited the match.

The Contact Tracing Bureau and Office of Civil Contingences are now collating information to determine the extent of local contact in relation to contact tracing.